fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:10:58 Page 1 Volume 2, Number 6 1 March 85 +----------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Editor: Tom Jennings Publisher: Fido #1 Chief Procrastinator: Tom Jennings ......................................... Disclaimer or dont-blame-me: The contents of the articles contained here are not my responsibility, nor do I necessarily agree with them; everything here is subject to debate. I publish EVERYTHING received. You can take this to mean anything you want, but hopefully as an invitation to comment, make suggestions, or write articles of your own. ......................................... HOT NEWS I'm late again ... Since I'm on the subject, anyone want to take over this job? I have way too much to do to keep up the newsletter, obviously I'm always late. The requirements are: write this damn editorial every week, take in all article submissions, and massage them as necessary, assemble the newsletter and distribute to a number of Fidos so that the world can get at it. I'll supply the software I use to assemble it. This includes a text formatter, and a program that can convert fixed ASCII text into word wrapped format. You will need WordStar or preferably PMATE or Vedit. If you want to volunteer, please let me know, preferably a week before the 1st or 15th of the month, so you'll have time to figure it all out. (Its not that hard.) fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:05 Page 2 Pretty boring editorial, but such is life ... fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:05 Page 3 NEWS ARTICLE SUBMISSION All articles you see in this issue are written by users and sysops, and have one way or another managed to consume disk space on Fido #1. In order to get rid of them, and free up my precious disk space, I include them here, then quickly delete them. Then they are YOUR problem. EDITORIAL CONTENT: Totally up to you; I publish anything at all. Article are generally Fido or BBS related; this is by no means a decision on my part, nor a requirement. FOR SALE, WANTED, NOTICES: Pretty much self explanatory. Commercial ads are welcomed, if of reasonable length. These will be run each issue, or until I lose them. (Dont laugh, Ive already lost a few.) SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE: Manage to get a copy of your article to Fido #1, preferably by Fidonet mail, or by uploading. If manual upload, please put it in the MAILFILE area, so that I can find them all at once. ARTICLE FORMAT: VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! The requirements are a little tighter in this department, due to purely practical constraints. I cannot devote hours to converting every text format in the world to the one I use. 1. NO LEFT MARGINS! Flush left please. These are extremely difficult to remove. 2. RIGHT MARGIN AT COLUMN 60 OR LESS! Less is OK, more is definitely not. This includes fancy boxes, dotted lines, etc. 3. KEEP FUNNY CONTROL CHARACTERS TO A MINIMUM! This includes formfeeds and other oddities. These areent as dificult to handle, but on long files still takes a while. 4. WORDSTAR IS FINE IF THERE ARE NO LEFT MARGINS! 5. PLAIN ASCII (EDLIN, ED, etc) IS FINE IF LINE LENGTH IS UNDER 60 COLUMNS! 6. NO GRAPHIC CHARACTERS! Believe it or not, not every one in the world has an IBM PC. My computer understands printable characters from 20 hex to fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:11 Page 4 7e hex. (Space to tilde) This is ASCII; "American Standard Code for Information Interchange". We are "Interchanging Information". Everything else is GARBAGE. ASCII is universal; Graphics are not. 7. TOTAL ARTICLE LENGTH: Up to you; note, however, that I will probably avoid publishing dictionaries, bibles translated into NAPLPS, and ASCII encoded LANDSAT pictures of Russian wheat farms. 8. WHERE ON EARTH IS THIS ARTICLE FROM? Well ... good question! A good idea to identify yourself somewhere, unless you wish to remain anonymous. Thats OK too, but I may balk at publishing rude or otherwise racy submissions. 9. AN EXAMPLE: Article from Tom Jennings Fido #1 4 Feb 85 Here is what an article could look like for submission. Very simple: plain old dumb ASCII, WordStar, PMATE, Vedit, or whatever. WordStar Document mode is fine. Note no left column; that is done when FidoNews is published. Note the total width is only 60 columns; it looks narrow on your screen, but fine when formatted later. END irrational tirade on text files ... on to bigger and better things! ============================================== FROM FIDO 357 SPRING VALLEY, NEW YORK ============================================== FIDO 357 is proud to announce the availability to any fido caller of having professional type setting done simply by calling in. In conjunction with Bear Works graphics we now offer over 150 different type styles and will provide you with low cost, high quality type- setting. Our callers have to first download a file of codes used to tell us the various type styles, sizes, and type qualities you desire. You then include these in your Ascii file that you upload or FIDO mail to us. With-in 24 hours your camera ready copy is on its way back to you via US mail, or any other carrier you desire to use. Our prices are very competitive and we offer quality fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:17 Page 5 work at very reasonable prices. ====================================================== From FIDO 357 Spring Valley, New York ====================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + + Setting Up a Fido BBS on a Sanyo Computer + + (C)opyright 1985 by Richard Levey + + SYSOP FIDO 357 (914)352-6801 (6 pm to 9 am EST) + + + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Having already set up over 9 FIDO systems on the Sanyo 555 series computers, it seemed natural I should write an article on the trials and tribulations of doing so. (Also Tom Jennings requested I write this!). A little backround if I may. We are Sanyo dealers and as such have more than just a users knowledge of the machine, and it's inner workings. There are two ways to get FIDO up and running on the Sanyo computer. I present them here for your choice. 1) Call a FIDO that keeps the raw files needed to start up a FIDO on the SANYO, download them, plus the manual, and then read the manual and attempt to get the system up and running. (sounds familiar doesn't it ?) 2) Call our FIDO at 914-352-6801 from 6 pm to 9 am (EST) and download 4 library files. Run Lu.exe against them. Then run a simple .bat file and Viola' you have it made. I know, you are saying there is no difference ! The difference is I have taken the time and the trouble to set up an actual FIDO with nodelist, routelist, and mini-user list, as well as 3 areas pre-set and ready to go!!! When you download our files you can be up and running in less than a half hour, as all the hard work has been done. We include a seperate manual that describes in detail all the important commands and what they do in regards to getting up fast and running. (I wish I could have downloaded this type of file setup !) In an attempt to help those who have chosen the first option let's discuss some of the problems that crop up when attempting to run from a fresh start. The first is getting FIDO set up with all the sub- directories needed on the proper disks. If you don't use sub-directories, then you may hbe asking for problems. To make a sub-directory called TEST, from the disk prompt you will type: MKDIR TEST The disk will spin and if you pull a DIR you will see an entry similar to TEST This means there is now a SEPERATE area on the disk that can hold files and is called TEST. To get to it, again from the disk prompt type CHDIR \TEST the \ is very important. If you don't type it, you won't change directories. Now type again DIR and see what a sub-directory looks like. Except for the first 2 funny entries, it looks the same as any fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:27 Page 6 other directory. The first 2 entries are required by the DOS and need not concern you at this point. Basically what you want to do is create multiple directories on your disks to seperate the files being stored and also for protection, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A HARD DISK DRIVE. If you are using a hard drive I SUGGEST YOU DO NOT KEEP A COPY OF FORMAT OR FDISK ON THE HARD DRIVE...ANYWHERE !!!!!!!! To try and simplify what we are trying to set up please examine the little diagram below.(excuse the art work please). DISK DIRECTORY MAP - VALID FOR FLOPPY OR HARD DISK SYSTEMS EACH DIRECTORY LEVEL IS SEPERATED BY DASHES (-----). ROOT DIRECTORY CONTAINS COMMAND.COM AND SYSTEM FILES ----------------------------------------------------------- FIDO DIRECTORY CONTAINS ALL SYSTEM FILES NEEDED BY FIDO ----------------------------------------------------------- : : : : : : MAIL DIRECTORY ANSWERS DIRECTORY GENERAL will hold all files will hold all files holds all files dealing with FIDO dealing with SYSOP in general area mail and msg's. questions/answers In the above map the last 3 directories are all SUB- DIRECTORIES of the FIDO directory. This keeps all files pertaining to FIDO in one area, and makes accessing them much faster. The ROOT directory is the area that appears when you first power up your machine and is the default area that the computer uses. PLEASE READ THIS NEXT PART VERY CAREFULLY IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH SUB-DIRECTORIES !! 1) FIRST---in emergency typing CD\ will return you to the root directory..so if you get lost that's the way to get back to the area you are most familiar with. 2) To create the FIDO directory from the prompt type MKDIR FIDO and then CD\FIDO to enter the FIDO area. Remember at first a sub-directory is empty so don't worry. 3) Now type MKDIR MAIL MKDIR ANSWERS MKDIR GENERAL DO NOT TYPE A CD BETWWEN EACH OF THE ABOVE COMMANDS !! 4) NOW TO GET BACK TO THE ROOT DIRECTORY TYPE CD\ AND RETURN. THE IDEA HERE IS TO SET UP A LOGICAL FILE PATH AND TREE STRUCTURE FOR FIDO TO FOLLOW WHEN ACCESSING FILES. YOU NEVER, NEVER, NEVER WANT TO SET UP FIDO WITH ALL THE FILES IN ONE DIRECTORY !! THE ABOVE TYPE STRUCTURE IS THE SAFEST ONE AVAILABLE TO A SYSOP. IF YOU HAVE SETUP YOUR AUTOEXEC FILE AND YOUR BAT FILE TO RUN FIDO PROPERLY (SEE BELOW) AND USE THE ABOVE FILE STRUCTURE I FEEL SAFE IN SAYING THAT YOUR IMPORTANT SYSTEM FILES SUCH AS THE USER fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:35 Page 7 FILE AND THE UTILITY PROGRAMS WILL NEVER BE SEEN, CHANGED OR VIOLATED BY A CALLER. The best way to set up your batch files would be on the order of something like below. My auto exec file reads as follows: PWRUPCLK-starts up quadbaord clock for time and date CD\FIDO - changes over to FIDO directory STARTBBS.BAT - FIDO BATCH FILE TO START FIDO CD\AUTOEXEC.BAT -VERY IMPORTANT IF SYSTEM DROPS TO DOS RETURNS TO ROOT FOR AUTO-RESTART. My STARTBBS.BAT file follows like above: FIDO_SYO 1/J 128/V .............. STARTBBS.BAT - if system drops attempts to restart from STARTBBS.BAT FILE. I have had plenty of wise guys try and break the system, but to now avail, it just keeps re-starting when it should. I also have 3 other commands...but we must keep some secrets... The second most common problem is with modem selection and carrier detection. We have now set FIDO up with the following modems to run on a SANYO 555. A)Hayes 300 external modem B)Hayes 300/1200 external modem C)Anchor Mark 12 external modem On modems A & B...you MUST have switch ONE DOWN !!!!!!!! Contrary to what everyone else says, this is the only way to make it answer the phone and handle carrier detect properly when running on a SANYO 555 series computer. We have two patches available that handle the DTR problem, and they work with DS DOS and MS DOS 2.11, so we wont even touch the DTR area in the article. Let it suffice to say it works. You can call 203-775-4898 to see it running on a Sanyo 555 computer. We are not sure of who wrote the patches, but we know from experience they work very well when run before FIDO_SYO.EXE Another problem with the SANYO is the clock. Every time the disk drives are accessed the clock looses a small amount of time. As we know, time is a needed function to run FIDO-net. There are two answers to this problem: 1)Set your schedule for a longer period of time. 2)Purchase an internal clock board similar to those used on IBM PC's and compatibles. Either way, you will soon get an idea of how to keep FIDO running on time. The last problem we will tackle in this article is disk space and the conservation of it. With 2 readily available programs (download free) you can solve a multitude of problems, regarding disk space. Any files you might want to make available for downloading should be either squeezed, or libraried, or BOTH. You can take 10 seperate files, and put them into one file thus saving you 9 directory entries (hard disk owners attention) By squeezing them after being put into a library file you fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:43 Page 8 can save anywhere from 10% to 50% of the original file space they occupied. LU.EXE is the program to use when making and un-making (?) library files. A library file can be recognized by the extension on the file name. You end a library file with the extension .LBR thus signifying a library file. LU.EXE will give you instructions on using it. Just type LU by itself and you will get a list of the coomands and the command format you will want to use to make a library file. NSQ203.COM is the program you would use to then squeeze the files. This program uses a standard formula and can be un- squeezed by several programs. I keep NUSQ104.COM and UNSQ.COM on my hard disk to accomplish this. Use NUSQ104 first, as it handles 99.5% of squeezed files. I hope this article has helped you to start to understand more about FIDO and starting a FIDO BBS system of your own. I would be most interested in feedback regarding this article, and all comments are welcome. Please address them to SYSOP FIDO 357. If enough people wish me to continue, I would be happy to continue this article, as there is much more to be said about FIDO and SANYO computers. If you need help, or just want to chat..please feel free to call me voice at the number in the article from 9 am to 4 pm and I will be happy to help you out. ======================================================== From Sysop Fido 357 Spring Valley, New York To all Fido Sysops interested in making extra money ======================================================== We are embarking on a NEW venture using the FIDO BBS system and the US mail service to provide customers with a service that while currently available is MUCH more expensive than it need be! If you are interested in making extra money then read on and see if this idea makes sense to you. We have many customers who have a need for 2 day mail service to the West coast, but do not want to pay the ridiculous charges other companies feel is needed. We are looking for Fido Sysops to participate in a new venture that should make us all some money. The idea is simple. Any letters I receive by 6 pm (EST) will be sent to FIDO systems in the appropriate zip code. This should mean that you will receive INCOMING FIDO mail some time around 3 pm your time from my system. Once the transfer has been completed, all YOU have to do is load the file into Word Star (or similar) strip off the message header, and print out the letter on good paper. Then you drop the letter in an envelope WE SUPPLY with POSTAGE,and drop it in a local mailbox BEFORE 5 p.m. What do you make out of this ?We will initially pay each fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:52 Page 9 SYSOP who participates a fee of $2.50 cents to do the above FOR EACH AND EVERY LETTER HE MAILS BEFORE 5 PM. We are supplying the postage and the envelopes for you to use. All you have to supply is the time needed and printer paper. YOU DO NOT AT ANY TIME HAVE TO PLACE ANY LONG DISTANCE PHONE CALLS TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PLAN. ALL YOU WILL HAVE TO DO IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IS FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:11:53 Page 10 If you are interestedin this idea please do the following: 1)Send us a Fido mail letter with the following: a) Your name and Fido number. b) A list of zip codes in your area that will receive 1st and second day delivery if mailed by 5 pm (your time). c) A little note telling us your baud rate, and anything special you might want to add. When (if) we get enough participation, we will notify you and arrange to send the envelopes and postage. Payment for letters mailed will be made once a week by bank check to you. Please let us know if you are interested in this idea. ======================================================== SYSOP FIDO 357 ======================================================== *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* * * * : The : * * ::: Adventures ::: * * : : : of : : : * * : WANGMASTER : * * : : * *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* * Cast of Characters * *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* The Wang Master......Verile but suave seducer of multitudes of women; able to juggle seven girlfriends at a single time; account holder with W.Simmons for new box springs each month; knows 17 distinct recipes for quiche. Buster Hyman.........Mystic Tasmanian Guru of all matters sexual; specialist in horn dog psychology; once performed solo in an orgy with 139 Tasmanian nymphs, two llamas, and a tube of crazy glue; sexual mentor to the Wangmaster. Mason Dixon..........Semi-astute observer of political and social trends; coined the phrase: "Blood is thicker than water, but thinner than the coffee at truck stops."; friend and confidant of the Wangmaster. Luke Warm............College freshman at Jessee Helmes University; majoring in Reactionary Studies; recently arrested for deflating every tire in Walter Mondale's motorcade; a recent aquaintance of Wang's, although he doesn't remember why. Sue Pository......Only female ever to remain a main squeeze of the Wangmaster for more than three weeks; recent college graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Seduction; fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:00 Page 11 eventually plans to marry rich, but in the meantime is seeking eight inches. Terry Cloth.......Aquaintance of Sue; the only sophomore at the Sara Lee School for Girls who hasn't yet; desperate to get defrocked by the Wangmaster, who she met at a jacuzzi party, but He doesn't know she exists. The Roid..........Nickname of young aquaintance of the Wangmaster; so called because when growing up was a frequent pain in the butt; been so called for so long that no one remembers his real name - including him; secretly admires the Wangmaster and longs to learn the secret of his virulency. ======================================================== : : : FROM SYSOP ON FIDO 357 TO ALL SANYO FIDO SYSOPS : : : ======================================================== The purpose of this article is to discuss the merits of setting up all the FIDOS running on Sanyo in a SEPARATE time slot for FIDO MAIL. As most of you know (and those who don't know) FIDO will by-pass the ROUTELIST.BBS whenever a file is attached ! While this is good for most instances, it does cause a loss of time during the NATIONAL MAIL SLOT when a lot of FIDOS are sending files, as they DO NOT go to a host, but DIRECT to the FIDO you are sending them to ! It would seem that it might be more efficient to set up a separate time slot for Sanyo Fidos to transfer files. This would free up the individual nodes to be free during national mail time, yet allow file transfers also. If you are receiving A DECENT SIZED FILE DURING NATIONAL MAIL YOU MIGHT MISS SOME INCOMING MAIL (unless you have an inbound). As more and more Sanyos come on line with FIDO and more and more specialized software becomes available for the sanyo it might end up making sense to follow through with a separate national time slot for sanyo file transfers. All comments, etc; should be addressed to: Sysop Fido 357 =========================================================== :end of sanyonet.art from fido 357 2-22-1985 : =========================================================== - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NETWORK - (Effective 2 FEB 85) The Southern California Network (SOCALNET), is comprised of five separate Regional Hubs, covering the major geographical areas. * LOS ANGELES * ORANGE * SAN BERNARDINO * SAN DIEGO * VENTURA fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:08 Page 12 The Southern California Network protocol and network routing schedule will be implemented by Fido 313, Mike Hamilton. Prior to the operation of the network, Mike will distribute to ALL Regional Hubs the correct routing for the individual nodes. The individual nodes will then insert the pertinent data into the NODELIST.DAT with their Local Area Prefixes, and process with NODELIST.EXE and ROUTGEN.EXE to create their own ROUTE.xxx. We are doing this to insure uniformity between nodes. FidoNews distribution, both Inbound from Fido 1 and Outbound to the Regional Hubs, will be handled by Fido 331, Brian Casey. Weekly updates for the FIDOLIST and NODELIST will be provided by Fido 36, and distributed to the Regional Hubs every Saturday during the Network shedule. It will be the responsibility of the individual Local nodes to download the latest FidoNews, FIDOLIST, NODELIST from their Regional Hubs. - REGIONAL HUB LISTINGS - * VENTURA HUB Host ..... Fido 52 ..... Gary Vedvik Locals ... none at this time * SAN BERNARDINO HUB Host ..... Fido 31 ..... John Warren Locals ... none at this time * LOS ANGELES HUB Host ..... Fido 36 ..... Don Brauns......... INBOUND NATIONAL HOST for SOCAL network Locals ... Fido 32 California, Arizona, and Nevada. * ORANGE HUB Host ..... Fido 313 .... Mike Hamilton...... NETWORK COORDINATOR for SOCAL network Locals ... Fido 11 Harry Lee Fido 337 .... Michael David Fido 370 .... Mike Hamilton..... OUTBOUND NATIONAL HOST for SOCAL network SAN DIEGO HUB Host ..... Fido 87 ..... Bruce Webster Locals ... Fido 350 .... Rick Eliopoulos - NETWORK SCHEDULE - -time- -sched- -function- -------------- --------- 00:00 to 00:29 E LOCALS TO THEIR HUBS National mail and local mail to locals fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:15 Page 13 in other Hubs, to their Hub. 00:30 to 00:59 D HUBS TO OUTBOUND HOST National mail from locals, thru the Hub to the Outbound Host. Hub to Hub local mail. 01:00 to 01:59 A NATIONAL NETWORK MAIL Locals to Locals within their Hub. 02:00 to 02:29 B INCOMING HOST TO HUBS Distribution of National mail to the Regional Hubs. 02:30 to 02:59 C HUBS TO THEIR LOCALS Distribution of National mail and Local mail via Hubs to Locals. [ The views stated here are not necessarily those of the editorial staff ... tj ] The following is the text of a letter sent to the Austin American-Statesman (Austin, TX) in response to an editorial concerning military retirement. The editorial stated that "military life is not very demanding (execpt in wartime)" ; that "facts are facts" and advocated unspecificed cuts in the military retirement system. Since the Statesman choose not to run it, I offer it to my fellow fido users for your comments: * * * * * * Your editorial on military "pension" reform does a disservice to your readers by implying that military retirement pay can be cut without cost to the taxpayer. Any cut in military retirement is likely to be offset by increased costs in retention, or in social unrest caused by return to the draft. All surveys show that the present retirement pay system is the single most important incentive to induce military personel to remain on active duty, and new entrants to the military cite the current retirement system in the top five reasons for joining in the first place. The law of supply and demand says that if the market lowers the price of a commodity, the supply of that commodity will fall. Reductions in retire1ent pay will reduce the number of people willing to join or to stay past their first enlistment. Currently only 13 per cent of new entrants into the military remain to retire. A cut in retirement will force increased compensation in other ways or the nation will be forced to return to the draft. fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:22 Page 14 Your assertion that the the present system has "grown like Jack's beanstalk" is completely incorrect. In recent years Congress has imposed employment limitations on retirees which reduce the value of their retirement. A change in the formula for computing retirement for post-Viet Nam era members reduces the value of retirement to future retirees significantly. Military retirement should be more generous than "the better private-sector plans" because military life is much more demanding (even in peacetime) than private sector employment. Despite your assertion to the contrary, military life imposes many hardships and demands not found in any other segment of our society. Your own newspaper recently carried a series on the hardships faced by junior enlisted persons stationed in high cost areas such as Austin. Your readers should realize that, like all military members, these junior enlisted had no alternative but to accept assignment here. Failure to report is a serious crime, as discussed in "Dear Abby's" columm in the same issue of the Statesman as your editorial on retirement. Military members incure many high costs not borne by civilians. They must endure transfers at an average of about once every three years. (I am a military member being transfered twice in 1985). Well documented studies have shown the member bears an out-of-pocket cost of around $1500 for each permanent change of station transfer. Military spouses must, in most cases, sacrifice career advancement due to these frequent moves. Many military members work in skills not in demand in the private sector, such as combat rifleman. Thus they often receive an economic setback when returning to civilian life. Frequent family seperations result in high finanical and emotional costs to military members. In the Air Force, two year-long "remote tours" are the norm in a 20 year period. Military members must accept strict limitations on their conduct, both on and off duty, not required in civilain life. For example, military members can be convicted of a felony crime if a no-notice urinalysis shows traces of illegal drugs. No civilian employer could impose such a requirement. Military members cannot quit their jobs with less than six months notice, and most have "service commitments" of up to seven years duration. Thus while a civilian can quit rather than accept transfer to an undesirable or expensive location, most military members do not have that luxury. The 5.7 percent of the defense budget spent on retirement helps buy a high quality all volunteer fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:30 Page 15 force. "Facts are facts", and any discussion of military compensation should include a full examination of the costs to the taxpayer involved in any misguided attempts at "reform". Sincerely, James N. Howard Jr, Captain, USAF FIDO #50 (username JIM HOWARD) ----------------------------- By Thom Henderson Sysop, Fido 375 System Enhancement Associates FREEWARE A Morally Bankrupt Concept Eh? Wazzat mean? Well, let's think about it for a minute. First let's define our terms. Freeware, as I am using it in this context, means software which the author is providing to the public in anticipation of support through voluntary user contributions. The concept has a great deal to recommend it. On the one hand, the independant author can easily market his wares without having to tool up a whole sales and service organization. The user, on the other hand, gets to thoroughly test out a product before purchasing it in order to make sure that it performs as claimed and that it will fill his needs. The intended end result is that the micro user has available a large quantity of low cost, quality software. Low cost because the author has no marketing expenses, and high quality because the simplicity of the system encourages all programmers (including the best) to make their best work available. But how is this elegant scheme working out in practice? Not too well, I suspect. The archetype of freeware (in more ways than one) is the famous PC-TALK program. I personally do not know anyone with a PC that does not have a copy of PC-TALK. In fact, many of our clients have us ship them updates over phone lines, where they are using PC-TALK to handle their end. But so far as I have been able to determine, NOT ONE of these people has ever paid the thirty five bucks! In fact, it gets worse than this. Attracted by the ease and simplicity of the freeware concept, we released a few utilities as freeware, with a modest five doller fee. Not long ago I got a call from a man who wanted to know if I could make a small enhancement to one of the programs to address a minor difference in his hardware. When I asked if fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:37 Page 16 he had sent us the license fee, he hung up. Truth to tell, I knew that he hadn't, because NOBODY ever sent us the five bucks! Are you using any freeware? Almost certainly. Did you pay for it? Almost certainly not. It's too easy to put off. It's too easy to curse at the program and swear that you're only using it as a stopgap until you find something better. But consider this: If it's been a few weeks, and you're still using it, then pretty obviously it is worth something to you. ----------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jon Tara on FIDO #92 Subject: Big hard disks on the AT Here's some information for those of you contemplating putting a big hard disk on the AT controller: The AT BIOS has a table of characteristics for 14 different hard drive types. (There is a 15'th entry, but it's set to all zeros. Type "0" means "no hard disk installed.) At power up, the BIOS reads byte 12 of the CMOS RAM (settable with the diagnostic disk) to determine which kind of drive to use. Bits 4-7 determine the type for the first hard disk (C:), bits 0-3 determine the type for the second hard disk (D:). Here are the pre-defined drive types: Type Cyl Heads Pre-Comp Land Mbyte 1 306 4 128 305 10.65 2 615 4 300 615 21.41 3 615 6 300 615 32.13 4 940 8 512 940 65.45 5 940 6 512 940 49.09 6 615 4 none 615 21.41 7 462 8 256 511 32.16 8 733 5 none 733 31.90 9 900 15 none 901 117.50 10 820 3 none 820 21.41 11 855 5 none 855 37.20 12 855 7 none 855 52.09 13 306 8 128 319 21.30 14 733 7 none 319 44.66 If you want to use a drive that isn't in the table, there's still a way out: the interrupt 41 and 44 vectors are set on power-up to point to the ROM table. These can be modified to point to your own table in RAM. (41 is for C:, 44 is for D:). These vectors are used by the BIOS to access the table. You would, of course, have to boot up off of a floppy disk to do this. fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:44 Page 17 By the way, drive type 9 corresponds to the Maxtor 1140 minus a few cylinders (the Maxtor has 918). S-100 Inc. is selling the 1140 for $3995. Note that you still have a limitation of 32MB built into DOS (at least in DOS 3.0). Some people are getting around this through a scheme that allows more than one DOS partition, and maps the additional partitions to D: etc. I do not know of a specific software product to do this, though. Maxtor is investigating driver software. Several theories have been offered as to why the 32MB limit. In DOS 2.0 it was supposed to be the 12-bit FAT entries, but that doesn't wash, since you could increase the cluster size (albiet to an unreasonable value.) It's been suggested that it's "in the driver software." I'm not sure what's meant by "the driver software" - it's certainly not the BIOS, which gets head #, cylinder #, and sector # (1-17). 32MB is 65535 sectors, so it could simply be some shorted-sighted code inside of DOS that puts an absolute sector number in a 16-bit word. The only place I can imagine that happening is in the process of getting from cluster # to head, cyl, sector. Must be some incredibly dumb code that left-shifts the cluster number in 16 bits to get a sector #, then divides for head, cyl, sec. That's my theory anyway. Then again, it could just be FDISK and FORMAT protecting us from ourselves... Anyway, it appears to be internal to DOS, and therefore fixable. (By Microsoft or IBM anyway...) I am trying to get a 3.1 to see if that fixes it. (GM is getting caseloads of 3.1, but the vendor that supplies them doesn't know it...) If they DON'T do something about this in 3.1, it's going to mean lots of trouble once they start selling network hardware. Ditto for the rumored 40MB AT. In all fairness, there is a practical limit - my PC takes a LONG time to come up with the "free space" message at the end of DIR. Also, a FAT table for a 100MB disk would be about 100K bytes... (P.S. The DOS 3.1's shipped to GM were recalled. Nobody had the presence of mind to copy the disks.) -------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================== FIDO BBS and the Sanyo 550 Series Computer Second in a series of articles for FidoNews (C)opyright 1985 by Richard Levey FIDO 357 ============================================== The first part of this article deals with an internal problem that the Sanyo computer series has. You may or may not have noticed that your clock (TIME$) does not even attempt to stay current. To quote a Sanyo technical rep,"If the world ran on Sanyo clocks, Christmas would come in July". This problem occurs because EVERY TIME a disk drive is fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:12:53 Page 18 accessed the clock is SHUT OFF and cannot update itself during each access, so the more callers you have the slower the clock will run! There are 3 alternatives to this problem. While number 1 is a little far fetched, I will mention it anyway. 1) If enough FIDOs start running on Sanyo, maybe T.J. will be able to patch the BIOS to handle the clock properly. 2) The simple solution is to purchase an internal clock card similar to what the PC's and compatibles have. This board is battery powered, and the battery is recharged when the computer is running. For the most part all these boards use quartz clocks, so maintaining 3 or 4 seconds a month should be no problem. A program is provided that you enter into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that will on startup poll the clock card and install the proper entries into the TIME & DATE prompts you normally would see, thus allowing you to forget about entering these items in the future. If you need/want more information on these boards give my FIDO a call and check out the text download area. 3) Another solution has been presented to me. I do not agree with it, but again, I will present it. A sysop has managed to add a trimmer capacitor (pot) to the clock power line, thus allowing him to change the speed of the clock. As outlined above though, you never really know how many calls you might get from one day to the next, so how do you know where to set the trimmer at? Also, that addition VOIDS your warranty for sure. 4)Of course you could stay up all night and make sure the time stays current, but you would get tired of this !! The second part of this article deals with the different sized disk drives available for the Sanyo and their integration into a FIDO BBS system. You can run a FIDO on any combination of the following drive configurations if you follow the directions. Size in Kb Type Drive Physical Location ------------------------------------------------------- 160 K S.S.D.D A + B **** ------------------------------------------------------- 320 K D.S.D.D A 160 K S.S.D.D B ------------------------------------------------------- 320 K S.S.D.D. A + B ------------------------------------------------------- 800 K Quad Density A ------------------------------------------------------- 800 K Quad Density A 320 K D.S.D.D. B ------------------------------------------------------- 800 K Quad Density A 160 K S.S.D.D B ------------------------------------------------------- fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:01 Page 19 800 K Quad Density A + B ------------------------------------------------------- 320 K D.S.D.D A 160/320 K either B 10 Meg/20 Meg Hard disk drive C ------------------------------------------------------- *** Not recommended for FIDO bbs. There would be little room left for files once you had the entire system on the disks. As you can see, either running DS DOS PLUS from Michtron or running the Greywolf operating system you can run any combination of mixed size drives including the 800 k drives and or a hard disk drive. You MUST be running at the bare minimum MS-DOS 2.11 to mix s.s.d.d and d.s.d.d. drives ! While we are talking about disk drives let me clarify the procedure to create, access, and delete SUB DIRECTORIES. YES, you can use sub directories on the sanyo. The proper procedure is outlined below along with comments. All input you type is in CAPITAL LETTERS. a>MKDIR TEST this creates a sub directory named test. type DIR now and see the funny entry that has been created with an entry of TEST to access this directory type the following: a>CHDIR \TEST The drive will spin and then the a prompt will appear again. Now type DIR and you will see a blank directory with 2 empty entries. DO NOT PANIC..all is well. The first 2 entries in any sub directory are used by the operating system and do not concern you at this point. Now type CHDIR \ to return to the regular (root) directory. Now type DIR again and viola' all is back to normal. To remove a sub directory you must FIRST erase all user files in the sub directory and then go back to the root directory (CHDIR \) and then type RMDIR TEST. (For more information on this topic see my first article). "Can FIDO run in 256k ?" is a frequent question. The answer is positively YES, it can. Call 203-775-4898 (modem) for a demo of FIDO on a 256k sanyo 555-2. It would appear that as of version "E" you will have no problem running in 256k. As a Sysop, you know that disk space ia always at a premium no matter what size drives you run. The best solution for lack of space are the following utilities: 1) LU86.EXE -----------: All 3 files can 2) NUSQ110.COM --------:-----can be found on most any 3) SQ2.EXE ------------: IBM BBS system. The first program allows you to group together many programs into one directory entry. This is know as a "Library File" and is signified by an extension on a file name of .LBR This program is wonderful when you want to fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:09 Page 20 keep many program of the same type or several modules of one complete program all together in one file. This not only saves you actual directory entries, but also the bytes required for each entry. Programs 2 and 3 are the real space savers however ! Program 3 is a "SQUEEZER" program which will compress any type of file, (.BAS .COM .EXE etc;) into a smaller space on the disk. You may save as much as 50% of the original file size by using this type of program. A "squeezed" file CANNOT be run as is. You MUST use an "UN-SQUEEZER" such as program number 2 to first make it readable by the computer. A squeezed file is signified by the letter "Q" in the middle spot of the extension. For example TEST.BAS becomes TEST.BQS when squeezed. For maximum efficiency both the squeeze program and the library program can be used together. Here is a typical example of the routine used to do this. We want to Library and Squeeze the following files. a) Test.txt b) Patch.com c) Run.bas so we do the following: 1) LU86 U EXAMPLE.LBR Test.txt Patch.com Run.bas we will be asked how many file entries in this library. As a matter of form I always enter 1 more than I am actually planning on putting in. This allows for the internal file to be created. TYPING LU by itself gives a short documentation to be displayed on the screen. 2) The file produced is now on the disk as EXAMPLE.LBR 3) Now type SQ2 EXAMPLE.LBR the disk will spin and you will get a progress report. The finished file will be called in this instance EXAMPLE.LQR. 4) You can now erase the 3 files you put in if you want and also the .LBR that you created. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but even those of us who run big hard drives squeeze and library files to save every bit of space possible. If you are running 2 floppy drives then you might want to consider the following option that is available to you. Assuming you have 2 320k drives and are currently running MS-DOS 2.11 you might want to purchase DS DOS PLUS. This is an operating system that replaces the DOS that Sanyo gave you. While we have sold both DS DOS PLUS and the Greywolf operating system, our customers seem to be happier with DS DOS PLUS. The principle reason is the increase in disk storage space this program allows you to obtain, WITH NO HARDWARE MODIFICATION OR PURCHASE. DS DOS will allow you to format your 320k drives to 400k per drive simply by using their format program and operating system. This way you get an extra 80k PER DISK DRIVE to allow that little extra in file storage you might want. DS DOS is 100% compatible with all software produced for the Sanyo and also has some nice features built in. You may contact Michtron direct in Pontiac Michigan, or check with your local dealer, who might have it in stock ! fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:17 Page 21 Another frequent question I hear is "How do I get my Anchor modem to work with FIDO?" Well we have the answer to that one finally ! We have 2 patches available, one for DS-DOS and another for MS-DOS that clear up the problem the Anchor has built into it. You can download these patches from my FIDO at 914-352-6801 from 6 pm to 9 am if you desire. Just put them on the Fido disk in drive A and put the file name of the patch file in the autoexec.bat file you use to start fido.(put it BEFORE the line which calls fido please.) If you do not already have a file called config.sys on your fido disk, now is the time to make one. It is simple and will benefit your callers immensely. We will now use a relatively simply procedure to accomplish this. From the A prompt "A>" type COPY CON CONFIG.SYS and hit return then type BUFFERS=30 return FILES=10 return then on the next line type control Z. This closes the file and writes it to disk. (by the way COPY CON means..copy the console input into the file name specified). The next time you re-boot the system (reset) this file is automatically read by the DOS and the changes made. This will allow faster running speeds as the disk does not have to be accessed for each and every request, as all 30 of the buffers you have created will now be filled with information. Well, that is it for now. I hope this article helps you to run a more efficient system. Please feel free to call our BBS if you have any questions..or problems. ======================================================== END OF SANYO2.ART FROM FIDO 357 SYSOP RICHARD LEVEY ======================================================== *+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-* From: Tom Kenny (User of FIDO #317) Date: February 28, 1985 Subject: Misc... 1. Introduction... I'm new to the world of FIDO and connect to the net via node #317. I read all of the existing newsletters and have some questions and comments. 2. Cheaper FidoNet??? I thought the aricles submitted by Ben Baker (at #10) were very good. There seemed to be some debate over the cost of an 800 incoming line and to my understanding the cost would vary according to location. Central (Midwest) being the cheapest and cost going up the closer you get to a coast simply because the worst case long haul gets longer. I wonder if population differences help in judging the cost. In conclusion the idea sounded great BUT there was no way around the twit freeloading problem! I assume outgoing WATS lines are alot more costly then incoming lines and in my opinion the other proposals fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:26 Page 22 didn't seem as good.... Is it a dead issue? 3. Networks... I'm interested in hearing more about other networks and inter-network happenings. I at one time heard there was a FIDO-usenet gateway. Is this true? I'm looking forward to citadel systems linking into FIDO, anbody else? 4. What's in a name? FUG replacement... How about FIDO International and Domestic Operators (rather plain I guess) Is FIDO an acronym for anything to begin with.... How was the name originally choosen? 5. Newsletter naming convention... The one I favor (for what it is worth) is FIDOVNN.NWS. The reason I'm not using two digits for the version number at this time is that it appears there where two issues of volume 2 number 3. I named them FIDO203A.NWS (1/21/85) and FIDO203B.NWS (2/4/85) otherwise I would have used two digits for the volume indication. 6. Usenet... In FIDOHIST.TXT which I got off of FIDO #79 Usenet was said to be a mini network with no routing and no host. I've used this network and was rather confused by what was meant to be said. First, Usenet is public domain software that runs on top of a network at this point in time it is known as the uucp (Unix to Unix copy) network. Routing exists within both to my understanding and altough there is no host or shall we say core to the system (which is the same as FIDO) there are systems that are hubs (again simular to FIDO). To my understanding FidoNet and the uucp network are very simular. I did not understand what was meant by Usenet being a mini network. Can somebody explain? 7. Suggestions... Has anybody thought about pre-paid reply mail? Say I send a mail item to somebody about something and I want to really want to get a reply. Well if the person I'm sending the reply to doesn't have to foot the bill maybe I'll get an answer soon or get one where I wouldn't get one otherwise. One complicated design would call for some node(s) to play banker.... On the other hand when node a calls node b and after node a sends all the it has for node b, node a could request any replies that are available to node a. The cost would be charged to the account of the person how sent the mail from node a to begin with.... I know IF I became the expert on xyz-widgets and was getting alot of mail from people with questions, I wouldn't want to pay the bill for educating anybody interested.... I don't mean to sound nasty, because I'm always glad to help my fellow user/sysop. It's just a case where it could get costly on a great network like FidoNet! This would work easily if there is alot of traffic to that node but say you are the only user shipping things to that node, what then? Well how about a required time limit on the reply? Or that the reciever has to reply! There are alot of problems I could cite now but let's see what the opinion is on this one.... Am I the only one that cares and the only one that would use it? (Remember fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:35 Page 23 I'm not a FIDO sysop, just a dump user) *+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-*+*-* NOTICES As a matter of brief introduction, I am Bill Macneill, SYSOP of FIDO node #202 in Boston, Massachusetts (1-617-721-1688). Recently, one of the members of my Board (DEC-Line -- a DEC Micro oriented board) uploaded a game file known as JETSET.BAS...a jet plane simulator, and one of the great classic public domain games. The problem with JETSET, however, is that it is SOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWWW! I would very much like the readers of this newsletter to advise me as to whether JETSET has been compiled to operate directly as an 'executable' under the MSDOS operating environment. If one of you is familiar with such a file, please advise me where I can obtain a copy...or even better, why don't you just call and upload to DEC- Line?? Again, we are at 1-617-721-1688 in Boston.... Bill Macneill, SYSOP DEC-Line FIDO#202 ---------------------------------------------- Item from: Allen Miller, Fido 85, 513-662-9635 I am looking for programs to convert text files to either all UPPER case or all lower case. I have seen a directory listing showing 2 programs called TO_UPPER.COM and TO_LOWER.COM. These names sound like just what I am looking for. If you know of this sort of program, please send me the files or a message telling me where I can get them. Thank you. Item from: Allen Miller, Fido 85, 513-662-9635 ---------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- _____ / \ _____/ (o)! ! /! ! ! \/ x ! ! \____/ \__/ \______/ /------\ ---FIDO MAG--- / / \ !\ THE FIDO USERS !U ! ! ! \ ---MAGAZINE--- ! ! ! ! \ \__UUU__!\ \ \ /\ \ \ fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:41 Page 24 The magazine for !___!! !/ \ Fido Users _! !!_______\ and (_____!! ^ ^ ^ Mental Patients ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ' ' ' ' ' ' THE UNDERDOG MAGAZINE Hey Kids, It's time to start the Un-Official Fido Users Magazine! This is a magazine that the USERS of fido systems can read and enjoy (hopefully). All stuff about running Fido and Fido "Sysop to Sysop" type stuff should be sent to Tom for the Fidonews. This will be a monthly magazine/newsletter with all sorts of nice garbage in it... ----------------------------------------------------------- FOR SALE ======================================================== FROM SYSOP FIDO 357 TO ALL FIDO SYSOPS RUNNING SANYO COMPUTERS !!!!! ======================================================== Salvation is at hand for all of you Sysops who run FIDO on a Sanyo computer !!! If the world ran on the clocks in the Sanyo CHRISTMAS would come in JULY ! The clocks in these machines are turned off whenever the disk drives are used. FOR those who need something less surrealistic the CLOCK/CALENDAR card brings the accuracy and affordability of digital watches to computer time-keeping. For half the cost of comparable boards for other computers, our CLOCK/CALENDAR card: * will give you accuracy to seconds a month. * comes with built-in rechargeable battery. * will keep accurate time for weeks if un-plugged. * is easily set from the operating system. Retail price on this product is $ 139.95 We sell it for $106.00 plus shipping Reply to sysop FIDO 357 TO ORDER. ======================================================= FROM FIDO 357 - END OF ARTICLE ======================================================= fidonews -- 06 Mar 85 20:13:47 Page 25 WANTED WANTED TO BUY: One used Gavilan computer. Send details (accessories, condition and price) to: Andy Meyer, FidoNet, Fido #317 - or contact Sysop of SMC-70 Citadel: (201) 930-6483 [24 hours, 300 baud] WANTED: INFO ON TANDON 8 INCH DRIVE I have a Tandon somethingorother-2, a double sided eight inch drive, half height. I do not have any docs on it, and need to know how to turn the drive motor off, if possible. Isn't it set up like a minifloppy? If you know what jumper, etc affects motor on/off, please send a msg to: Tom Jennings FidoNode #1