Volume 5, Number 42 17 October 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and are used with permission. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 OPUS Gazette Band Wagon! ................................. 1 An Open Letter To SEA .................................... 3 MORE STORAGE ON YOUR DISK DRIVE .......................... 5 Building the New Ark ..................................... 10 256k Chips Abound! ....................................... 12 A CONSULTANTS VIEW ....................................... 13 DOS and Don'ts: A Word Usage Complaint ................... 16 What Another Battle? ..................................... 18 QBTOOLS - A PROGRAMMER'S DREAM ........................... 19 QT/2 A Fantastic Computer At A Great Price ............... 20 SUPERLIB A Great User Library For Quick Basic 4.0 ........ 23 Survey Time Rolls Around Again! .......................... 24 And more! FidoNews 5-42 Page 1 17 Oct 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= OPUS Gazette Band Wagon! Jake Hargrove Fido 301/1 High Mesa Ranger's Well here it is the first week of October, 1988. An I only received two replies to the SysOp interviews submitted in the Opus Gazette and Fido News. Don't know if it is me or if you folks out there are not reading these two fine newsletters. I felt kind of bad when I picked up this months Opus Gazette. There were no articles in it, except the one from the Editor. So here is what I reside to to. Effective with next months Issue I plan on having at least one article in each of the Issues of the OGZT. Or until you folks out there protest enough to make me quit. I have been hearing all the reports about 1.1, well I am running 1.03b, and do not at this time relish the thought of having to change over to 1.1. So to the developers, here is at least one SysOp who Thanks you for taking your time and getting things right. There are those of us out here who do not have major problems with the OPUS BBS system, and as I said many many Moons ago. Thanks Wynn! I did do a NO NO a couple of weeks ago. I installed ConfMail to run in conjunction with the OPUS. Not because I am dissatisfied with PUREly OPUS, but because I wanted to see how hard it would be to install, and I can tell all of you PUREly OPus Sysop. If I can install ConfMail and have it run with No problems so far so can the rest of you. An all this talk about why the backbones are doing certain things kind of reminds me of the months prior to the AlterNet institution. Sure there are enough of US Opus BBS to start our OWN Net, but do we really want to do that? Do we want to cut our own throats? Many of us seem to forget some of us do this for the FUN of it, and YES this is an expensive hobby, and will get more expensive as it goes on. That is why I say all of us should work at making the cost cheaper, vs complaining about having rules enforced upon us. At least we do not have to have a License to operate these things as some have mentioned in the past. An I for one am grateful to the phone company for not making policy with which I could surely not live. This News Letter, has done it's thing once. I for one do not want to see it happen again. I do get busy as many of us do with other things in my life. But this hobby of mine takes up a good bit of it, and right now is averaging over $100.00 each month. Of course the wife no longer complains about the phone bill when I throw her cigarette bill and books into the pile. Anyway, it is just a Hobby or that is what I keep saying. It just has not turned out to be as enjoyable as it use to be. So FidoNews 5-42 Page 2 17 Oct 1988 if I do my little part in keeping the OPUS Gazette alive then I guess I will be able to say I accomplished something this month. What can you say you have done? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 3 17 Oct 1988 An Open Letter To SEA ===================== Joe Lindstrom Farpoint Station (1:134/9999) Calgary, AB, Canada (403)-248-9999 I've kinda sat back and washed all the stuff hit the fan (in EchoMail in regards to the SEA vs PKware controversy. Issue 540 of FidoNews was, thankfully, a breath of fresh air. Now that I know some facts, I'm willing to "take sides", but with a few reservations. I use both ARC and PKPAK/UNPAK here on my system. After reading your article in Issue 540, I'm leaning towards favoring ARC though. You stated the facts, and you promised that ARC may be used without charge (though a contribution will be nice) by non-commercial users now and in the future. I'm sure you'll remain true to your word on this. However... the PKPAK and PKUNPAK programs are FASTER, compress BETTER, and support some features (like archive comments) that ARC does not. I will continue to use PKPAK and PKUNPAK for now on my BBS, though I do use ARC for EchoMail for compatibility sake. And therein lies the rub: here we have ARC, the "industry standard", which appears to me and to most others to be an inferior product (as it relates to PK only, because ARC is really a very wonderful product). After January 1st, we'll be back to ONE choice of archiver. I have so far resisted the temptation to send you a contribution to ARC. Reason: I have only recently joined the MS-DOS world. I used to run a C-128 based bulletin board. I bought my XT compatible and jumped in right in the heat of battle. There were TWO well-known and well-supporter archivers and I was having to make a difficult choice. I instead took a wait-and-see attitude, and I have now seen. I will send my contribution when a couple of things happen. First of all, I would like to see ARC perform FASTER. I realize that's gonna be a little difficult, especially when it comes time to upgrade ALL versions of ARC for different computers (machine codes of course differ machine to machine), but it most certainly can be done. Secondly, it must support newer, better compression methods (such as SQUASH). Third, it should have all the bells and whistles that PK had (file and archive comments, etc.), and hopefully a few new ones you can dream up. This is asking a lot of you. After all, you came up with the first ARChiver, and you have already given a lot to us. But like you pointed out, people have formed biased opinions AGAINST you. To win the support back, and to truly solidify your self-proclaimed position as "the industry standard", you must continue to be competitive. The above steps are just the beginning in an endless dogfight to stay at the top. FidoNews 5-42 Page 4 17 Oct 1988 Thank you for an informative explanation of the events leading up to and after the suit. Thank you for an excellent utility that has saved millions of users everywhere a lot of time, money, and storage space. And thank you for ARC 6.00 which I know will come as a direct result of this message ! By the way, there is now a third-party ARC-compatible archiver/dissolver available for the Commodore 128, which any 128 owners (or the folks at SEA) may want to check out. It comes in a package called "CS-DOS" (written by Chris Smeets) and is available for $30 from: Ampere Metal 80 Hale Road, Unit 4 Brampton, ON, Canada L6W 3M1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 5 17 Oct 1988 MORE STORAGE ON YOUR DISK DRIVE By Gene Coppola Everyone wants to be able to store more files on their disk drives whether the drive is a floppy or hard disk drive. There are several ways to obtain more storage, some using hardware methods and some using software. This article will cover several of the software methods available to you at little or no cost. The two programs covered are ARC produced by SYSTEM ENHANCEMENT ASSOCIATES located in Wayne, New Jersey and PKARC produced by PKWARE located in Glendale, Wisconsin. Both programs have been released as Shareware software. The authors expect that you will pay a license fee if you continue to use the software after a reasonable trial period. The two programs take one or more files and produce one smaller file. In some cases, the size of the resulting compressed file can be drastically reduced in size. The compression routines used in each program vary. The speed and resulting compressed file size are determined by the compression method used by each author. ARC was released before PKARC but the latter is a definite improvement in speed over ARC. The author of ARC releases the source with ARC in case you desire to examine how the software works. PKARC will read and operate on files produced by PKARC or ARC. ARC will only operate on files it produces. Both software packages have very good documentation and the command menus for both programs can be seen by typing the program name at the DOS prompt. The results reported in this article were produced on a QT/2 which is an 80386 based 20 Mhz PS/2 compatible computer with 12 megabytes of RAM. A one megabyte RAM disk was created and all operations were then performed in the RAM disk. I ran the tests in the RAM disk to produce my results without the disk lag associated with floppy or hard disk drives. The times reported are the average of ten runs for each test reported. MS-DOS 3.2 was the operating system in use during the tests. The QT/2 memory speed is a quick 80ns. I tested a variety of different file types and combinations of files to see how each program handles different files. PKARC and ARC were used for compression, PKXARC and ARCE for decompression. CUBIT from Softlogic is also available and from past tests the results have been poor. I could not include results from CUBIT because the version of CUBIT I own will not run on my system and Softlogic has refused to provide me with an updated version of CUBIT that will run on an 80386 based system unless I purchase the updated version. CUBIT is a Terminate And Stay Resident program and takes user memory once loaded. The files it produces are not compatible with ARC or PKARC software. It is also more FidoNews 5-42 Page 6 17 Oct 1988 expensive than either of the Shareware packages. Test 1 - Lotus 2.01 Worksheet PKARC PKXARC ARC ARCE Compression Time 00:05:64 01:02:43 Decompression Time 00:04:03 00:34:00 Original Size 235962 235962 Compressed Size 43614 55845 Percentage 82 77 Test 2 - Lotus 2.01 System Disk PKARC PKXARC ARC ARCE Compression Time 00:17:86 02:07:41 Decompression Time 00:09:43 00:14:04 Original Size 301878 301878 Compressed Size 259834 265521 Percentage 14 13 Test 3 - 60 Microsoft Object Files PKARC PKXARC ARC ARCE Compression Time 00:07:06 00:22:16 Decompression Time 00:06:08 00:07:06 Original Size 44985 44985 Compressed Size 34030 34073 Percentage 25 25 Test 4 - Randomly Generated Text File PKARC PKXARC ARC ARCE Compression Time 00:13:11 01:11:32 Decompression Time 00:05:01 00:08:73 Original Size 164001 164001 Compressed Size 127858 158243 Percentage 23 4 Test 5 - Text File Of All The Same Characters FidoNews 5-42 Page 7 17 Oct 1988 PKARC PKXARC ARC ARCE Compression Time 00:03:36 00:12:79 Decompression Time 00:02:79 00:02:84 Original Size 164001 164001 Compressed Size 3010 363 Percentage 99 100 As you can see from the above chart, PKARC is consistently faster than ARC when compressing a file. PKXARC is also faster than ARCE when decompressing a file. The average reduction in file size for the five tests is 48% for PKARC and 43% for ARC. While the difference of 5% does not seem like much, it does add up. The capacity of my hard drive is 110 megabytes. So the five percent advantage of using PKARC allows me to store 5.5 megabytes more on my drive than if I used ARC to compress my files. The speed advantage of PKARC is the main factor however in my choice between the two packages. However the author of PKARC includes one more feature that I really like. You can create self-extracting files with PKARC. This is great for people who write software and wish to distribute it in this manner. Both PKARC and ARC come from the authors in a self-extracting archive file. The versions of the software tested are the latest available at the time this article was written. I used version 5.21 of ARC and version 3.6 of PKARC which was released a few days ago and contains major improvements over previous versions. 1. PKARC is now up to 25% faster. PKXARC is now up to 10% faster 2. You can add 3,095 files to an archive in one sweep. 3. Special limited-disk-size handling to enable the update of archive files which are larger than 50% of your floppy disk storage area. 4. Added flexibility to the MOVE option by combining it with other update and freshen options. 5. A List Files feature has been added to further automate the archiving & file reconstruction process. 6. Your choice of having PKARC stop when it encounters a "can't find" file situation, or having it make a notation on the screen and then proceeding to the next step. 7. Improved network support. 8. The addition of the MORE command for the PKARC verbose file FidoNews 5-42 Page 8 17 Oct 1988 listing which provides pausing after each screen of information. 9. The addition of the MORE command for PKXARC which provides pausing after each screen of information during the "extract file to the screen" process. 10. New printer options for PKXARC. 11. A new -n option which saves time by reconstructing only the most recent version of the file to be extracted when another same-named file already resides on your disk. 12. Additional information about the archiving process is displayed which includes the version number and program. Here is a small dictionary of file compression terms to help explain some of the features of these software packages. FILE COMPRESSION is the process of reducing a file's size. Sometimes called ARCing or compressing. FILE means the SINGLE name that identifies information on your floppy disk or hard drive. ARCHIVE FILE holds information that has been reduced in size for better storage. Sometimes called an ARC or ARCed file. An ARCHIVE FILE can be made up of either one big file OR several files bunched together under one file name. PKARC is upwardly compatible with all its own upgrades as well as with most other file compression programs. You can UNarc almost all of the archive files that have been created. There may be times when you need to CREATE an archive that is compatible to one which can be read by SEA's ARChiving program. This means you will use less features to maintain compatibility. C:>PKARC otc a OldFile.ARC *.* ___ | This option, which IMMEDIATELY follows the program name, will create an archive file that is compatible with SEA's ARC. If you have any further questions or comments about PKware File Compression programs, contact: PKware, Inc. 7032 Ardara Avenue Glendale, WI 53209 BBS by Modem - 24 hour support FidoNews 5-42 Page 9 17 Oct 1988 1 - 414 - 352-7176 Voice 1 - 414 - 352-3670 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 10 17 Oct 1988 Mark Browning 280/306 Building the New Ark -- An Immodest Proposal "The land is being overtaken by the SEA and the cities are going to the dogs, or perhaps the KATZ" -- attributed to Nostradomus and Yogi Berra Pardon my purple prose, but I'm tired of all the bickering. It seems that one of the few things in FidoNet and the computer hobby in general which is not getting smaller and faster is debate. In the past few weeks I have read messages, had files uploaded and seen FidoNews articles wailing about this or that side of the PKWARE vs SEA suit. I have come to a conclusion on the matter, which I quote from an old t-shirt: "Kill 'em all; let God sort them out." From the SEA side, I can understand the feeling. We have heard all about the "family business", the piracy and the refusal by Phil Katz to respond to simple requests. If Katz DID steal the code from SEA, and then resell an enhanced version, then he probably should be drawn and quartered and THEN sued. I also understand the PKWARE side of the dilemma, with which most average hobbyists sympathize. If SEA had done what Katz did, writing a significantly better file compression system, then the whole problem would never have been started. I would propose dumping both of these systems and coming up with the .ARK file. The .ARK file would employ the various file compression methods which the .ARC file employs (and which, if I am not mistaken, SEA did NOT originate). It would not be compatible with the .ARC file, so that the .ARK author would not be sued for conspiracy to commit efficiency. .ARK will be considerably faster than PKARC, ARC, et al. In other words, it and it's author will bury everybody else and remain militantly FREE for the asking! Lest anyone think that the term .ARK is simply a knock-off of .ARC, it must be noted that .ARK refers to the Noah's Ark. What more appropriate term could we find for something that would house all of our miscellaneous files and carry them safely over the sea (with all those catz -- er, cats -- swimming around)? Am I serious? No. I certainly wouldn't trust a file compression program that I wrote. I do trust both the SEA and the PKWARE people! No one is served best when a superior program is barred from the market. The primary reason for the dynamic growth of the IBM compatible computer world is the openness adopted by IBM from the outset. While Apple and others twiddled about with proprietary secrets and closed architectures, IBM opened the books completely, and while they lost some potential profits as a result, they have gained immensely more through their openness. If stuffy Big Blue can be this open, why do shareware authors have to fight like cats FidoNews 5-42 Page 11 17 Oct 1988 and (SEA)dogs? (The author apologizes for the pun-ishment above. There I go again!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 12 17 Oct 1988 256k Chips Abound! By Gene Coppola A steady source of quality 256k chips has finally emerged. We are now in a position to supply 150ns 256k chips at the low price of $7.50 per chip! These chips are covered by our standard 12 month warranty against manufacturing defects. Each and every chip has been tested and found to be in proper working condition. These prices are ONLY for FIDONET Sysops! If your system does not appear in the current NODELIST then you are not eligible for these prices. Please note I said FIDONET Sysops only!. Not Alternet, not Texasnet, not Southnet or any other net. If you do not belong to FIDONET then you are not eligible for this special offer! Contact me, Gene Coppola care of 1:107/200 for more details. As of the date of this article we have 1500 hundred chips left. I reserve the sole right to refuse any order, from anyone for any reason. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 13 17 Oct 1988 A CONSULTANTS VIEW Currently the best performance v.s price ratio is obtained with the SUNTAC 80286 motherboard. This board operates at 4 speeds the lowest being 6 Mhz and the highest speed being 15 Mhz. Four megabytes of RAM may be installed on the motherboard using either 256k 100 n.s. chips or 1 megabit 100 n.s. chips. Memory above 1024k (1 megabyte) is available as L.I.M. 4.0 memory. The SUNTAC motherboard has two eight bit expansion slots and six sixteen bit expansion slots. The board will operate either as a one wait state system with 120 n.s. memory chips or a zero wait state system with 100 n.s. memory chips installed. A clock-calendar is installed on the board. This board is compatible with PC-DOS, MS-DOS and OS/2. When using PC-DOS you must use GWBASIC instead of IBM's BASICA due to copyright restrictions. The price of expansion memory chips is very high and no relief is in sight in the near future. However the prices of the various speeds of 256k memory chips are very close. To avoid having to purchase memory in the future if systems are upgraded it is suggested you obtain RAM chips with a minimum speed of 120 n.s. at this time. Once your system requires more memory the suggested option to purchase would be an AST Rampage board. This board will serve you very well in several ways. 1) Allows you to use Rampage memory as system memory. You can backfill from 64k up with a Rampage board. 2) Allows you to expand your system with up to two megabytes of E.E.M.S. memory which can be used by many programs such as Lotus, dBase, Turbo Pascal, SAS, word processors and network software. 3) Many multi-user programs such as Desqview, Windows and Concurrent Dos recommend and run much better on a Rampage board than any other board including Intel's Aboveboard. With the advent of the SUNTAC 80286 based motherboard I do not recommend the purchase of a Turbo Speed Up board at this time. The 80286 based motherboard can be purchased at a price equal to and in some cases (Orchid Technology) at a much lower price than a Turbo board. Some of the reasons for this decision are explained below. 1) Turbo Speed Up boards do not in most cases increase the data transfer rate between disk drives and the processor. The SUNTAC motherboard uses a 16 bit bus allowing much faster transfer rates. FidoNews 5-42 Page 14 17 Oct 1988 2) A Turbo card will not increase the transfer rate of either the serial or parallel ports. Again an 80286 based motherboard can make use of the 16 bit bus which increases transfer rates. 3) OS/2 runs on only one of all the available Turbo cards currently available. While OS/2 is not currently in major use I feel it will be within your expected equipment life. 4) Turbo boards create many problems due to the heat generated by the high speed processor and memory on the Turbo board. 5) Some EGA and many VGA display cards will not work when Turbo boards have been installed. Many of the computers I see still have the old 65 watt power supply installed. For a PC with just two floppy drives, one display card, and a printer card this is reasonable. You must understand that once a system starts to expand with hard drives, emulator boards and such, the power requirements and cooling requirements increase very dramatically. More problems are caused by the lack of proper cooling than any other reason. For a PC or XT I recommend a minimum of a 150 watt switching power supply. For those of you with AT's I suggest a minimum of 200 watts. Be sure than any power supply you purchase is U.L. listed and approved. For special situations there are Turbo Fans which increase the cooling by a factor from 120% to 400% over standard power supply/fan combinations. I recommend either a Seagate 30 megabyte or Seagate 40 megabyte hard drive. The 30 Mb would be for PC or XT systems and the 40 Mb would be for AT systems. Both are self parking and have proved to be very reliable in continued use. Until PC-DOS 4.0 is bug free I recommend that PC-DOS 3.3 be used on all systems. PC-DOS 3.3 is very stable at this point and provides many features not available in previous DOS versions. 1) Increased environment and shell functions. 2) Decreased minimum file size. Previous versions of DOS have a much larger block size when files are saved. 3) Built in disk cache (type) functions. 4) Increased speed for hard drive data transfer rates. 5) Most network software will no longer work with 2.x FidoNews 5-42 Page 15 17 Oct 1988 versions of PC-DOS. Many new and improved network compatible functions have been included in PC-DOS 3.3 thus making it far superior to prior versions. OS/2 has it's own place. However since a minimum of three to four megabytes of memory and an 80286 based system is required for OS/2 to be of any improvement over PC-DOS 3.3 I recommend staying with DOS 3.3 for the time being. When considering whether to invest in a network there are many factors that must be considered before any purchases are made. Here are a few of the many questions you must have answers for before you make any purchases. 1) How many people will currently be accessing the network? What are the current minimum and maximum numbers? 2) How many people will be accessing the network within the next twelve to eighteen months? What are the minimum and maximum numbers for this period of time? 3) Will electronic mail between users be required initially once the network is set up? If not, will it be required in the future? 4) What type of software will you be loading into and using on the network. Will the software be stored on a server or will each work station have its own software? 5) Are the versions of currently owned software network compatible? If not, how much will it cost to upgrade to versions that are compatible? 6) Will you purchase a network site license or individual network licenses for your software? 7) Who will install and service the network and all associated hardware and software? 8) Is someone available who can take day to day responsibility for maintaining the network and performing daily software backups? 9) Can I afford the costs involved with obtaining the hardware and software for a network and the operating costs? The most important question has been reserved until last. Do you really need a network, or can you make better use of the resources currently available? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 16 17 Oct 1988 Daniel Tobias 1:380/2 DOS and Don'ts: A Word Usage Complaint This is something I felt I had to get off my chest after reading Brian J. Murrey's piece in FidoNews 539. He refers in that piece to "a DOS machine" as a synonym, I would presume, for "machine capable of running MS-DOS," or "IBM PC compatible." While this usage of the term "DOS" is currently fashionable, I must nevertheless register my opposition. "DOS" is a generic acronym for Disk Operating System, and as such refers to a number of such systems. Apple had DOS 3.2 and DOS 3.3 for their Apple II line, before releasing ProDOS as their new standard. Disk units for the Commodore 64 come with routines in their ROM that are referred to in the manuals as "DOS." The Atari 800's operating system was loaded from the system master disk by typing the command "DOS." The Amiga has AmigaDOS. Many such DOSes were already in existence when Microsoft released PC-DOS and its nearly-identical twin, MS-DOS. Hence, it's incorrect and ambiguous to use the term "DOS" to refer to MS-DOS exclusively, except in clearly machine- specific contexts. Here are a few examples of what I mean. INCORRECT USAGES: (based on actual examples I've encountered in computer magazines, catalogs, and overheard conversations among computer people) "Different operating systems can have confusing differences. For instance, UNIX uses forward slashes to designate subdirectories, while DOS uses backward slashes." (Wrong: MS-DOS and PC-DOS use backward slashes; some other DOSes, like Apple ProDOS, follow UNIX usage!) "Pages 1-5 of this catalog cover Mac software, and pages 6- 14 cover DOS software." (Atari DOS or AmigaDOS? Actually, the only "DOS software" is the system master disk; all other software is applications software!) "DOS machines are less friendly than Macintoshes." (Does this include ProDOS 16 machines? Actually, there's no such thing as a "DOS machine," since the machine is a piece of hardware, while the DOS is a piece of software. What you have is a machine capable of running a particular variety of DOS.) CORRECT USAGES: FidoNews 5-42 Page 17 17 Oct 1988 "I prefer UNIX to MS-DOS." (Refers to a particular operating system by its correct name.) "This software requires an IBM PC or compatible." (Alternate tack: refers to the hardware by its correct name. MS-DOS-compatible and IBM-compatible machines are pretty much interchangeable these days, though there are a few exceptions such as the DEC Rainbow that run MS-DOS but aren't compatible with the IBM PC. To be precise, it's best to say "MS-DOS" when referring to all MS-DOS based machines, and "IBM-compatible" when referring to just those which can run IBM PC software.) (In a magazine clearly identified as IBM-PC-specific): "Here are some hints and tips to help you make productive use of DOS commands." (Here the IBM PC's kind of DOS is presumed unless otherwise indicated.) (In a magazine clearly identified as Apple II-specific): "You may need to convert a file from DOS 3.3 to ProDOS." (Here, any references to DOS are presumed to be to Apple's DOS, just as such references in IBM-specific publications are presumed to be to IBM's. Thus, the "DOS 3.3" is the earlier Apple operating system, not the MS-DOS 3.3 release. If the article actually wanted to discuss conversion of files from MS-DOS 3.3 to ProDOS, it would have said "You may need to convert a file from MS-DOS 3.3 to ProDOS.") I know I'm going against the current on this one, and future dictionaries will probably end up defining DOS as "the operating system devised by Microsoft for the IBM PC," but as a long-time computerist, I had to object to what I felt was an incorrect usage. I think this usage stems from the arrogance of current computer users who feel that IBM PC's are the only real computers. But, do you want to tell an Apple II enthusiast who's been booting up his DOS 3.3 system master for the last seven years that he's really not running "DOS software"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 18 17 Oct 1988 What Another Battle? By Gene Coppola The following letter came in in last nights netmail! Mr. Thom L. Henderson System Enhancement Associates, Inc. 21 New Street Wayne, New Jersey 07470 Dear Mr. Henderson, I object to the nature of the actions you and your company have been taking against other software vendors, particularly shareware companies working in the area of ARC-compatible utilities. I feel that these actions are without basis and done with malice in an attempt to drive your competitors out of business. I don't believe that these actions will benefit the PC user community or your company in any way in the long term, nor that they will advance the state of the art in software. Indeed, I feel that their effects on the bulletin board community are divisive. I feel that your actions are wrong. I ask that you discontinue all such actions and undo the harm that you have already done to the industry. Further, you should go back to spending your efforts and money in a way more advantageous to both yourself and the computer industry as a whole--and that is in developing new products and improving your existing products fairly and openly. I was requested to sign it and then upload it to other systems. What a bunch of crap this is! Thom Henderson has done more for computer users than many people realize! Without ARC we would all suffer. Without XLATLIST and other network utilities we would be back to updating the nodelist BY HAND!! (Yes I Have Been Around That Long!) You can believe me, it was a job just making 20 changes a week. Can you IMAGINE what it would be like making 100+ changes a week? As an author myself, I recognize the value of both a Copyright and a Trademark. The laws regarding these items were put in place to protect the time and effort people put into their work! I feel that Thom is well within his rights to protect his time and effort! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 19 17 Oct 1988 Five weeks ago, Project X Announced the release of QBTOOLS version 2.0. Now, with growing popularity, and demand, we have released version 2.1. Furthermore, Project X Software Development is proud to announce the purchase of the GIZLIB routines from InfoSoft and M.K. Yaklin's position as Technical Advisor to Project X. This partnership is already bound to bring more routines into the fold, and some exciting new projects are already in the works. QBTOOLS/2.1 is an add on library for QuickBASIC version 4.0. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 20 17 Oct 1988 QT/2 A Fantastic Computer At A Great Price By Gene Coppola It has been six months since I first reported on the QT/2 computer system. Many improvements have taken place since then and I felt an updated review was in order. All QT/2 owners have received a motherboard upgrade as well as an additional ROM upgrade. These upgrades were supplied at no cost! Each owner received a letter asking us to have our motherboard securely packaged and ready for pickup on a specific date. U.P.S. delivered the new board and picked up the old one. The first improvement has been the ROM updates. These were received several weeks ago and have been installed and tested. The updates provide for a speed increase of 300 per cent with a VGA monitor. The QT/2 motherboard comes with a built in display adaptor for Mono, CGA, EGA and VGA displays. The update provides for a maximum resolution of 800 x 600 when a VGA monitor is in use. The second improvement has been in memory management. QT/2 motherboards come with 12 megabytes of 60ns RAM. The setup routine now allows you to assign any portion of this RAM to extended or expanded memory. This is a blessing for those of us running Oracle, Desqview, OS/2 and Windows 386. The third improvement is in OS/2 compatibility. OS/2 is fully supported and works very well on the QT/2. The full 12 megabytes can now be accessed. Windows 386 now files on the QT/2. The fourth improvement is the internal disk controller. Over 120 different hard drives are now supported. The new controller now supports six drives, both floppy and hard drives in any combination. Cables are supplied for two hard drives and four floppy drives. The controller also supports over 15 different external or internal tape drive units. The fifth and finest improvement is in the motherboard itself. The updated motherboards are rated at 25 Mhz and come with both 80387 and Wietek co-processor sockets. 12 megabytes of 60ns RAM are installed on the motherboard. Both the disk controller and display adaptor use 32 bit architecture to provide the fastest speeds possible. The motherboard tests out at a speed of 8.1 MIPS. One 32 bit slot is provided on the motherboard for the optional memory expansion board. The expansion board comes with 20 megabytes of 60ns RAM bringing the system total up to 32 megabytes. This additional RAM and the Wietek co-processor brings mini-computer speed and power to you at micro-computer prices. For those of you that did not read the first review I will go over the major features of this fine system. The QT/2 comes with 12 megabytes of 60ns RAM and a 64k 25ns high FidoNews 5-42 Page 21 17 Oct 1988 speed cache. The main processor is a 25 Mhz 80386 with sockets for an 80387 or Wietek co-processor. A 40 megabyte Seagate ST-251-1 hard disk drive is included as well as a 1.2 Mb floppy and a 360k floppy. Due to the proprietary nature of the built in disk controller no partitioning software is needed. Running under Dos 3.3 or OS/2 the QT/2 handles any hard drive up to 300 megabytes as one drive. Two serial ports and two parallel ports are built into the motherboard. A 220 watt switching power supply is now standard equipment. The disk controller and display adaptor are built into the motherboard. Both are covered above so we will not go into those items here. A clock/calendar is built into the motherboard. This is backed up by a regular nine volt battery that is known to be available almost anywhere you go. Nine expansion slots are available. One is a 32 bit slot reserved for a RAM expansion board. Six slots are 16 bit slots and two are 8 bit slots. Almost every possible expansion feature is built into the motherboard and nine slots seems like a bit of overkill, but this is the way the board was designed. The QT/2 comes in a heavy duty metal case complete with a key lock that secures the case and activates the keyboard. A separate lock is supplied to secure the power switch preventing unauthorized use of the system. The keyboard is an enhanced AT style keyboard with tactile touch keys and led indicators for Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock. The QT/2 is one of the few computers with a complete MCA style bus. This is completely functional and has been tested with many of the expansion products now available for PS/2 systems. This is truly an exceptional value at $1995.00. An 80386 based system with an MCA style bus ready to plug in and run. The hard drive comes formatted under DOS 3.3 but can be easily be reformatted if desired. At this time the motherboard is not available as a separate item, but future plans include selling the motherboard as separate unit. The United States distributor for the QT/2 is A WORLD OF COMPUTERS at 151-28 22nd Avenue in Whitestone, New York. The zip code is 11357. No phone inquiries please. Currently there is a shipping backlog of about 14 to 21 days from the day an order with full payment is received. All QT/2 systems come with a 13 month warranty covering parts, FidoNews 5-42 Page 22 17 Oct 1988 labor, shipping and insurance in the event a system must be returned for repair. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 23 17 Oct 1988 SUPERLIB, the finest user library for Quick Basic 4.0 owners has been updated and enlarged and now includes support for OS/2. New features have been added and old ones improved upon. The first and most obvious feature is the size of SUPERLIB! The library now has over 120 routines including complete mouse and DOS level file control. This is about 60% more than in previous versions and puts it on par with the expensive commercial libraries. Many of the SUPERLIB routines run under OS/2! Many FUNCTIONS have been written in Assembler! This allows you to evaluate a subroutine as an expression or assign the result in fewer lines of code! This lends itself to a number of advantages, ie; the code is smaller, easier to read, and makes more sense. All it requires is a simple DECLARE statement at the start of your code. SUPERLIB now supports complete file access via DOS Functions. In so doing, you can completely avoid those annoying runtime errors by letting DOS return an error code, rather than an error! SUPERLIB now has a considerable number of routines added for mouse support, including cursor control, mouse work area restrictions, and sensitivity. These have been thoroughly tested on the new Microsoft mouse, the Logitech mouse and the Mouse Systems mouse. All work fine except the Mouse Systems mouse needs an explicit call to set the cursor mask, so we have added one. The routines used in SUPERLIB are written mostly in assembler and assembled under MASM 5.0. The few BASIC based routines that there are, were written under QuickBASIC 4.0. We distribute SUPERLIB in two different ways. The ShareWare version provides you with everything you need to call and execute the SUPERLIB routines from within the editor/environment. This provides an ample opportunity for testing and evaluation. The ShareWare disk is available for $10 which includes postage. The complete version of SUPERLIB is for those of you who want to incorporate SUPERLIB routines in their own .EXE applications. In this case, the library of routines and a license to use them in such applications is available for $20 which includes postage. This breaks down to a cost of less than 14 cents per routine. No other user library comes close to our low cost. SUPERLIB comes with over 50 popular public domain programs including a screen generator that generates Microsoft object files compatible with Quick Basic, C, Pascal, Fortran, MASM, Lattice C, Aztec C, Clipper and a host of other languages that support .OBJ files. SUPERLIB is available from BASIC PROGRAMMERS LIMITED, 2nd Floor, 110 Hillsboro Avenue, Elmont, New York 11003 and is covered by a money back warranty. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 24 17 Oct 1988 Survey Time Rolls Around Again! By Gene Coppola Well it is again time to run a survey and see who reads FIDONEWS. Last years results were interesting and this year I hope to get more responses then last year! The idea behind the survey is to try and determine the readership of FIDONEWS, where these people live and their age. It was suggested that instead of asking people to send a postcard that we use netmail instead. After much thought I agree with this method. It is easier for most people and much quicker than waiting for postcards to get here. If you would like to participate please send a netmail message to GENE COPPOLA on 1:107/200. Please include your age, and what city, state or province and the country you live in. The results will be published in a future issue of FIDONEWS. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 25 17 Oct 1988 SYSOP SUES USER WHO ALLEGEDLY UPLOADED TROJAN PROGRAM by Jonathan D. Wallace, Esq. 107/801 Bill Christison, sysop of a bulletin board system called the Santa Fe Message, filed suit in August in New Mexico federal court against a user he believed had uploaded a trojan horse program to his BBS. The program, which purported to compile statistics on BBS usage, erased the operating system from Christison's hard disk and damaged the file allocation table when he ran it. With the aid of the telephone company, Christison was able to identify the user (who had called his BBS under a pseudonym as Michael Dagg, also of New Mexico.) Christison's law suit is the second case involving bulletin board systems to have been brought under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). Under the ECPA, it is a federal crime to access stored electronic communications without authorization and to alter, obtain or prevent access to such communications. Penalties include imprisonment of up to one year and fines up to $250,000.00. The statute also provides for private civil suits such as Christison's. As of October 7th, Dagg had not yet hired an attorney or responded to the complaint, according to Christison's attorney, Ann Yalman. The ECPA potentially provides a potent tool for sysops who wish to defend themselves against malicious users. It is a two-edged sword, however: the first case brought under the ECPA involving bulletin board systems was Thompson v. Predaina, in which a user sued a sysop who allegedly made private files public without permission. --------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan D. Wallace, Esq., an attorney in private practice in New York City, is editor of The Computer Law Letter, a bimonthly newsletter, and author of SYSLAW: The Sysop's Legal Manual. He can be reached at (212) 766-3785 or at Fido 107/801. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 26 17 Oct 1988 Computer Viruses I'd Like To See By David Rice (1:103/503.0) As long as folks are going to go through all the time, energy, and hassle to write computer viruses, I'd like some custom made, please. I mean, since most computers won't practice safe software sharing, I may as well turn that to some advantage. I know there are electronic condoms floating around, such as FluShot+ and C-4, but most computer users don't know about them (there was no Computer Sex Education in Health Class in High School). It has occurred to me that one virus could infect the OPUS.EXE file to produce a CRASH file in the Outbound File Area, which would contain the host's BBS.CTL and USER.BBS files, to be sent late at night while the infected host's SysOp innocently slept. Some fine folks have done this already via "BBS utilities," and not viruses; The "virus approach" is the next step. A nice feature for the infected OPUS.EXE file would be instant SysOp access to each and every caller who used a particular password. This password would be known only to the author of the virus and myself, who payed for the genetic engineering project in the first place. This is much safer than looking for a particular user's name to assign SysOp level, of course, and this will insure that when the genuine, true, legitimate SysOp discovers the bogus one (me), I can always call back under a different name to reek my havoc, to pillage, to plunder, etc. Have you ever considered the incalculable damage a virus that seeks out LANs could do? Our LAN here at work is hooked up to Chicago via a 9600 baud modem. Files sent over this phone line go not only to the corporate data base there, but from there to six other divisions in the corporation. Gee. Think of the possibilities! A month from now over 2,000 employees could come to work in the morning, type in LOTUS at their DOS prompt, and get a warm, friendly greeting from me instead! I'll take one of these viruses too, please. Thank you. Speaking of spread sheets, there's another virus I'd like, if you don't mind. Let's suppose I worked for the Mish Mash Development Corporation, who is in the Spreadsheet development industry. Naturally, I'd want only OUR spreadsheet to be used. This virus would infect every file on some poor unsuspecting slob's computer, of course, but it's main function would be to seek out and destroy all "Lotus 1-2-3" and "Quatro" and "Symphony" files, thus clearing up space for our "Mish Mash Inna Flash" spreadsheet, which isn't nearly as nice but at least it isn't copy protected. I suspect the market for this virus to be a massive one: I envision the hard disk becoming a FidoNews 5-42 Page 27 17 Oct 1988 battle ground, with "R:Base System V" fighting a desperate struggle against "D:BaseIII+" for complete and total hard disk domination. Rival software could easily keep you on your toes, and add much to the wear and tear of your disk drives. I'll take one of these geared against "ASTROL95", please (my rival in the astrology software market). Thank you much. Perhaps another virus would cause a subliminal message to flash on the screen every few minutes that says "DAVID DESERVES A PAY RAISE!" I could deliberately go to the Manager Offices and infect their computers. "Hey," I would begin, blushing and innocent as a virgin, "I've got a neat program here that makes your computer run 875.62% (on average) faster! Let me install it for you. . . ." This virus would have an install program to change the message. In this way I could sell my services to those who require a raise in pay, at a flat rate or a percentage over an agreed upon time period. The possibilities are endless with this virus: "Vote For ME!" or "SAVE THE DINOSAURS!" or "GOD IS DEAD!" or "REMOVE YOUR BRA!" or "STOP PICKING YOUR NOSE, JERK!" My boss might come up with one that says "QUIT!" or "YOU'RE FIRED!" just to keep my anxiety level high. So if you are in the virus engineering business, please drop me a line. Let's talk. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 28 17 Oct 1988 Distributed Electronic Voting as it aplies to Fidonet elections and plebicites By useing the capabilities of public key encryption it is relativly simple to provide for verifiable electronic voting with simple netmail attached files. There are a few practical considerations which complicate matters but do not by any means prevent implementation. I will assume a passing familiarity with public key encryption techniques. For further info interested parties should refer to past fidonews issues. The simplest form of voteing would be a "public forum" or "show of hands" type of voting. The only special consideration required is verification of the voter's identity and their right to vote such that only registered voters vote and they only get one vote each. For our purposes, the nodelist is usually the list of registered voters. To start with each voter would generate his own public key. These keys are in the form of small (less than 1/2 k) files. The keys should be collected through the regular hub-NC-RC-ZC hierarchy. All public keys should be freely available at any level to anyone who wants a copy (of the full set or any subset). This would mean that at the top levels the full collection would amount to perhaps 2 megabytes for 4000 nodes. Fidonet bounces files of this magnitude around the net it seems fairly often in the form of echomail. NCs and RCs would be responsible for resolvoing any discrepancies such as conflicting submisions for a single node. A directly delivered message to the node's phone number bypassing all routeing and pick-up situations should resolve any such problems. If there are further questions, protocols can be worked out to resolve them. Any node should be able to verify their key at any time with a digitally signed message from their NC or in extreme cases RC or even ZC/IC. Once the keys are collected, they would be relativley stable. At least as stable as the nodelist. Nodes not submitting a key could be implying a wish not to vote. In particular, keys need not be changed for subsequent elections. When a vote is to take place, it would follow the same flow of information. At each level the votes would be verified and sumarized so that an RC does not need to actually do the full digital signature verification on all votes but only needs to sum up the votes from the NCs in his region and verify the independant nodes and add them into the totals. The RC would also forward all the actual signed FidoNews 5-42 Page 29 17 Oct 1988 votes to the ZC for random checks or verification. Note that no one should need to send the whole works in one shot. Only the votes from one region would be sent. ZCs simply add up the totals from the RCs and if required forwards the totals to the IC (and makes available the votes themselves to other interested parties such as scrutineers). The ballots themselves can be quite small files also, on the order of 100 bytes, depending on the exact issues being voted upon. Note that this particular plan depends on the vote being open as oposed to a secret ballot vote. Note also that the above proposal is a minumum. For instance, an RC who has a very fast machine could verify all the ballots from his region. The reason that full verification is not required is that the verification process is rather time consuming (pure CPU time that is). Also the candidates or any interested parties could perform spot checks or verifications to search for anomalies. If it is determined that a secret ballot is required then it becomes even more complicated. Several layers of encryption are required and extra record keeping is needed for verification or re-counts. The simplest form would go something like this: First a returning officer would be appointed. He would create a special public key for the vote and publish it in fidonews or somehow make sure all eligible voters got a copy of it. He would also appoint deputies for each region or voting district. The deputies would get copies of the special private key. In normal cases this might be the RC unless some conflict of interest is in effect. Special deputies for the nets may also be needed if a NC is not suitable but the net level would not have the special private keys. Probably the regional deputies could be empowered to apoint net level deputies. (Zone 2 and 3 sysops, please excuse me if I gloss over inter-zone protocols. I beleive they can be extrapolated relativly simply from this.) The voter creates his ballot without personally identifying marks and encrypts it with the special public key. The voter then signs the result with his own private key and sends the result to his NC. The NC gathers all the ballots which come in before the voting deadline and removes the first layer using the public keys of his nodes insuring that only registered voters have voted and that they have only voted once. He forwards the results to the RC. It may be desireable to have the NC sign and/or encrypt this stuff. The NC must keep the signed ballots in case verification is ever asked for. The NC should NOT show the signed ballots to his RC though in order to maintain the secrecy of the ballot. The NC knows who voted but does not know how they voted. FidoNews 5-42 Page 30 17 Oct 1988 The RC should only receive annonymous messages encrypted with the special public key. When the RC de-crypts them he would only count proper un-spoiled ballots (without identifying marks etc). The RC then forwards a tally on up the ladder in the same manner as the previous example. The RC should be careful to not reveal the corespondance between the encrypted ballots he receives and the decrypted ballots that he counts. This implies a minimal level of trust in the coordinators by the voters. If the RC or NC is deemed unsuitable for either of these tasks then alternate election officers should be appointed. If it is estimated that the computational burden on the RC's machine would be too great then extra deputies could be added to help out. A CPA or somesuch could be hired to do verifications but such a person would need considerable computing power or a lot of time to do a full verification. It would be quite feasable to verify only the top levels completely and make do with spot checks at lowwer levels. If the coordinator is not trusted by the voters and no acceptable alternate can be agreed upon, the voters can either revert to a non-secret ballot or attempt to arrange a protocol where no one needs to be trusted. If they try for the latter, and I'm not sure it is possible, it will doubtless involve more administration and more computation than the plans presented here. Perhaps they should also consider reverting to a primitive style paper vote. One major advantage for this system is that it should be possible to carry it out much faster than a paper/post office type of vote. The ballots could go out in fnews or an echo conference and the results should be tallyable within a week. This article should demonstrate the feasability of a completely electronic voting system. The security of the system is demonstrably quite high and should be technically acceptable to anyone who wishes to investigate the details further. It is possible to add even more security at the cost of extra computational and orgazizational effort. There remains only to work out nameing conventions for the various files and archives and a general acceptance of the scheme by the fidonet community. This last may be the most difficult. Anyone familiar with the PKSCrypt software system for public key encryption may notice that I have selfish reasons for promoting these concepts. I will try to partially defuse that objection by saying that I am willing to let Fidonet sysops use PKSCrypt for Fidonet voteing purposes without demanding that they pay the shareware licence fee; at least until alternative public key encryption packages become available from other sources. I have prepared a document which should allow sufficiently technically FidoNews 5-42 Page 31 17 Oct 1988 oriented people to create such software. That document and the PKSCrypt package are available from my system for MANUAL download on your first call. FILE REQUESTS ARE NOT SUPPORTED. Lloyd Miller Node 1:134/1 1(403)282-1703, 2400 bps Calgary, Alberta 1988 October 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 32 17 Oct 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 13: The Negative Side "IF THIS REALLY WAS A GOOD HOBBY NETWORK YOU'D TALK ABOUT D&D". This was a message to me from a user about my board. I don't happen to have any message areas that cover D&D. Funny that should be the case, since my advertised specialty areas are EagleTech Software and the national AVIATION EchoMail conference. I politely responded, explaining that "Amateur Hobby Network" means that *I* have a hobby in playing with computers and networking them together. It does not necessarily follow that I support all hobbies. Even though I happen to like D&D and other adventure, role-playing and war games. Then I get this guy who calls in with a name whose validity I question. So I left him a message AND a custom welcome, asking him to verify the name, with address and phone number. Seven times he logged in, saw the custom welcome, and hit all the file areas and logged off. I dropped him to DISGRACE status, left a more clearly worded custom welcome; still he called in about four more times, tried to hit the file areas (the only one allowed at DISGRACE level is the FidoNews Area), and logged off. So I TWITted him. Why didn't he just leave me a message? I even told him how to do it on the custom welcome. And the classic - "Hacker calling". Oh, that's TWIT level immediately. Why is it so hard for people to say who they really are on BBSs? I don't recall ever having that difficulty when *I* was a mere user. And if ever there was a strange person, I definitely qualify. But *I* never had any problems using my real name. Handles are kind of nice, when they apply, but this doesn't cut well in EchoMail. Too many people out there. Oh, well, even FidoNet can't be all blessings and charm, I suppose. I've been blessed, even in my troubles with users, in that I haven't had any vicious hackers trying to crash my board or slam my communication links. I've heard of such, but (knock on wood) haven't seen any. I guess I'll just overlook the negative side and enjoy my hobby. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 33 17 Oct 1988 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= SYSOPS HERE IS THE SALE YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR We are proud to be able to sponsor another sale just for FidoNet Sysops! You must be listed in the most recent nodelist from 1/0 as a node that is available for the public to call. If you are listed as a private or unlisted node then you are not eligible to purchase or participate in our Fall sale! Our Fall special is a 6/10 Mhz 80286 system. The system consists of a 6/10 Mhz motherboard, a Western Digital Combination disk controller, an AT style case with key lock, reset and speed switches, power, speed and disk LED indicators, an auto switch AT style extended keyboard, a 1.2mb floppy, a 360k floppy, a 200 watt AT style switching power supply and a 16 bit multi I/O card. This system is unique in the fact that it can use one of three different types of memory chips. You can use 150ns, 120ns, or 100ns chips and the motherboard allows up to one megabyte of memory on the motherboard. The price for the system DOES NOT INCLUDE any memory! Chip prices fluctuate to rapidly for us to publish a firm memory chip price several weeks ahead of time. Our special Fall price is a low $898.00 which includes a six month warranty for parts and labor and all documentation. The price DOES NOT INCLUDE any memory, DOS or shipping charges. This system CANNOT be shipped outside of the continental United States. Pickups can be arranged for Sysops who desire to pick up the system in person instead of having it shipped. For further information send your name and mailing address to A World Of Computers at 151-28 22nd Avenue in Whitestone, NY. The zip code is 11357. These systems are now in stock and each system is tested for 24 hours before it is shipped to insure proper operation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 34 17 Oct 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 23 Nov 1988 25th Anniversary of "Dr. Who" - and still going strong 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90b* EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.22* Fido 12h MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M XlaxNode 2.22* MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 2.00* XlaxDiff 2.10 TPB Editor 1.21* QuickBBS 2.03* ParseList 1.20* TPBoard 4.2* TComm/TCommNet 3.1* TCOMMail 1.1* Lynx 1.10* D'Bridge 1.10 FrontDoor 2.0 * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 35 17 Oct 1988 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 1:147/1 13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5 15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1 16 Vince Perriello 1:141/491 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871 18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24 19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 36 17 Oct 1988 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________________ State ________________________________ Zip _____________________ Country _________________________________________________________ Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________ BBS Name ________________________________________________________ BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________ Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________ Board Restrictions ______________________________________________ Your Special Interests __________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in US Funds to: International FidoNet Association PO 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 and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the membership in January 1987. The second elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-42 Page 37 17 Oct 1988 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we can make no written guarantees. Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986 IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ SUBTOTAL _____ IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____ Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member International orders include $10.00 for surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____ SUBTOTAL _____ MO. Residents add 5.725% Sales Tax _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS: International FidoNet Association PO Box 41143 St Louis, Mo. 63141 USA Name________________________________ Zone:Net/Node____:____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------