fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:52:30 Page 1 Volume 2, Number 7 15 March 85 +----------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +----------------------------------------------------------+ 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 This is my last editorial, yeah! Thom Henderson at FidoNode #375 is taking over as Head Procrastinator. Thom has an article here. Please note that this means you submit articles to him, not me. You can FidoNet them, or upload them manually. The latter will probably be a lot easier than spending hours and hours trying to autodial into Fido #1. Good luck to Thom, and thanks. Thanks also to the others who volunteered for Procrastinator duty, it is appreciated greatly. No editorializing here today; I wrote a whole article instead. There are a lot of changes coming soon. This also means that I'll be able to WRITE ARTICLES instead of having to MUNGE ARTICLES. Currently, I cringe when I think about the newsletter; usually it's 10 PM on Monday night when I think about it, and have to work on it then. Ecch! I'll probably write more now that I don't have to. (?) fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:52:37 Page 2 fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:52:37 Page 3 NEWS ARTICLE SUBMISSION Note that articles go to Fido #375, not #1. Please make a note of it, and tell others. 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 #375. 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 #375, 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! fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:52:42 Page 4 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 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 #375 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! -------------------------------- Thom Henderson Fido node 375 System Enhancement Associates Change of Command Back when I was in the military, they made a big deal out of "Change of Command". That is, when new leaders took over from the old. Well, new leaders are taking over from the old here at Fidonews, because we at node 375 are going to be publishing Fidonews in the future, but as far as I am concerned, there is no big deal. We plan on following Tom Jenning's policies, and the only difference you need worry about is to send articles to node 375 instead of node 1. Needless to say, I do hope that you will continue to send articles to Fidonews, since the strength of this publication is its user support. This is a newsletter by, of, and for the users. This is YOUR newsletter. It is no more and no less than what YOU make it. fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:52:48 Page 5 The primary policy I intend to pursue is to make my editorials short and to the point, and this one is no exception. ------------------------ As you all probably know by now, Fidonet is growing faster than any one of us ever imagined. What was once a simple group of people having fun has become a very large and complex group with very large and complex needs. The file FIDOHIST.TXT available on most boards covers all the details; if you're not familiar with it please read it. I'll assume you have read it for the rest of this article. There are now 200 nodes in FidoNet. FidoNet requires much more background work than is apparent; it's one of those cases that you don't see it until it collapses. The software requires continuous support, and if Ken Kaplan et al quit doing the node list, I guarentee FidoNet would collapse into total disarray within 6 weeks. I cannot continue to be the only source of FidoNet software, and Ken Kaplan cannot be the only person managing the network. This article isn't to make anyone feel guilty, no! Fidonet is supposed to be fun, and useful second. If it wasn't for those 200 sysops, well, what would the point be? This article is about growing pains. This may come as bad news, but Fidonet is now large enough that it needs some sort of formal type organization. This is not a joke, it's not something for the future, it is needed NOW. Something on the order of the ARRL (American Radio Relay League, ie. ameteur radio) I would guess sounds good. Just barely formal enough to keep everyone in touch, but not stiflingly so. Probably many sysops will drop out instantly; it is probably unavoidable. However, if we do not, everyone will be forced out, since there will no longer be a FidoNet. The advantages will be the much smoother operation, and much better information available to new sysops especially. The newsletter is a start (see the other article somewhere about newsletter changes) but not enough. It's readership isn't wide enough. FidoNet expertise is now being scattered across the net, as opposed to being centered in one spot, previously me. Ken Kaplan (St. Louis) on node list organizational areas, John Warren (Riverside CA), Kurt Reisler (VA), John Anderson (OH), and many many more for utilities, Allen Miller (OH) for Multilink/multiline Fido, Ben Baker (St. Louis) on network routing, are just a small sampling of people with Fidonet expertise, that I can recall off the tip fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:52:56 Page 6 of my tongue. There is no way that anyone could know of this expertise floating around, except by accident. Friday 15 Mar, on Fido #1, I answered 400 messages; 150 Fidonet, 150 Comments-to-the-sysop, and the rest sprinkled around other areas. This was ten days worth of messages, and is a typical load. Almost all of these fall into a few categories: 1. Questions on Fido operation 2. Bug complaints, ie. outright failures 3. Annoyances, (checking for mail, etc) 4. Suggestions for changes 5. Misc. comments, questions, etc Most, but certainly not all, questions are from new sysops. The same questions are repeated over and over, as is to be expected. The Fido manuals stink. Also, many things just don't make sense, and are totally arbitrary. Bug complaints are almost without exception all real and serious enough to report. Annoyances are usually "it works fine, but this one thing drives me crazy". I repair bugs as I can, and fix annoyances where possible. Suggestions for changes, well, how I handle these has changed. I used to respond to all of them, then some of them, now almost none of them. I just dont have time. If there were more developers, this would be a whole different story. Before I continue, let me state the reasons that the Fido program source is not public: Fido was written using many proprieatry sources and libraries which I routinely use in my work; not all are my property, and even those that are are used in many commercial programs, Ptel included. I cannot under any circumstances give out Fido sources. Back to the software: this issue depends on whether you see Fido/FidoNet as a program, or as a network. I see it as a network first, the Fido software second. (Many may not agree ...) To get down to it, we need a second FidoNet compatible program soon. If for no other reason than "What if TJ drops dead?" To repeat, I cannot give out source, do not ask. Fido now consumes 20 hrs a week, now being dropped to under 10 by the expedient method of not answering all my mail. (I hear grumbling ...) If there were source available for a FidoNet ocmpatible program, no matter how limited at first, it would (1) take pressure of me (selfish ...) (2) provide a start for people who need customized systems and (3) allow hackers to hack, from whence all good things happen. Fido is an evolutionary dead end; it works of fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:03 Page 7 course, but has many serious drawbacks. It is huge, cumbersome, and consumes disk space like a congressional subcommitee consumes money. It is like that ancient reptile Apteryx, it flies, but only with great effort. Time for someone to create an eagle with what we've learned. WHAT THIS ORGANIZATION NEEDS TO DO: Basically, nothing that's not being done now. These are pretty straightforward tasks. DISEMINATE SOFTWARE: A place where latest versions are kept, and possibly an alternate method of distribution. (Diskettes, etc). Probably a system almost devoted to this. HELPING NEW SYSOPS: Providing them with the information needed to start a system. People who can answer messages about problems, questions, etc. Maybe someone monitoring for the 100 most frequently asked questions. SOFTWARE MAINTENAINCE: Maybe the same node that passes out software, a group of people who repair the software, implement changes, listen to ideas and generally keep it working. NETWORK TOOLS: Things like NODELIST, ROUTEGEN and CONVERT save hours or days of work. Many people have never heard of them. NETWORK MAINTENAINCE: This covers adding new nodes to the node list, checking the phone numbers for accuracy, verifying that nodes really exist, and referring new sysops to a useful place. REGIONAL NETWORKS: FidoNet is splitting naturally into local nets, as in Boston, LA, St. Louis, etc. This is good, and should be encouraged further, even to the point of almost totally independent groups to help new sysops, etc. Basically, it works this way now informally, so it would not be much of a change. RESEARCH: There are a lot of things out there that just arent addressed, such as interfacing to the AMSAT *amateur*, *privately owned and operated* packet radio satellite, new network architectures, low cost nodes, high volume nodes, fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:08 Page 8 third world information transfer, you name it, there is a need for it. I repeat, this is not a harebrained fantasy, nor a wish list. It must become reality, and quickly. I am not going to set up this organization; I'm too busy fighting fires in the short term. Ken Kaplan is too busy as well. This is a grassroots, low cost, hobbiest network, the first and only one of it's kind. It is truly the forefront of technology; you can ride along for free and see it collapse by Fall, or you can start things going, even better than it is. --------------------------------------------------------- From: Jon Tara on FIDO #92 Subject: Usenet, uucp, etc. In reply to Tom Kenny's comments in the last newsletter: I am still planning a FIDOnet-Usenet gateway. I am still waiting for the release of a commercial uucp package for MSDOS. (for info, send uucp mail to ihnp4!vortex!lauren or on ARPA to vortex!lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA) The package will probably sell for about $350. This is the same package that will be (aparently) supplied with Coherent and possibly other UNIX-clones in the future. It's the only commercial non-ATT uucp implementation I know of. First, some basic information on uucp and Usenet: 1) uucp generally runs on minicomputers that run UNIX. I assume that's what was meant by Tom's "mini" comment - not that it is less than "full scale". 2) usenet does indeed have routing. The difference is that the user has to explicitly specify the route to be used, in most cases. (Some sites do indeed have "smart routers.") FIDO does some things that uucp does not, as well as vice- versa. I wouldn't say that either one is "better" than the other. 3) uucp is a proprietary program written by ATT as part of the UNIX system. It is NOT public domain, and indeed ATT has been VERY touchy about it. Anyone selling a commercial version of uucp had better be able to prove that they didn't use uucp source code, or face prosecution. The program and protocol(s) are sketchily documented in a few Bell Labs memos and journal articles. There is apparently no source of complete documentation. I've heard that the source code itself is impossible to follow. 4) uucp is a PROGRAM. It stands for unix-to-unix copy. Think of it as the Xmodem of the Unix world, with some additional capabilities. The original intent of uucp was to fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:15 Page 9 allow ATT to easily update UNIX software at their remote sites. 5) Usenet is a NETWORK of sites that use the uucp program. It is of an ad-hoc organization. There are a few "backbone" sites - mainly within ATT and at large universities. The largest site is ihnp4 at ATT in Indian Hill, Illinois. ihnp4 talks directly to at least 200 sites. How much traffic each node is willing to pass on, the nature of the traffic, etc. is determined by whoever owns that system. Many of the big sites have dedicated lines to other sites, so it costs them nothing to pass on messages - it only becomes a problem if their capacity is exceeded. Others have to make phone calls, which could range anywhere to internal corporate lines (again, "no cost") to normal ATT dial-up. 6) Superimposed on all this is Usenet news. The terminology is still unclear to me, but you often see references to "the uucp net" and the "usenet net". The uucp net is simply the collection of sites using uucp which are able to pass mail. The Usenet net is a subset of these that "get the news." I think. Like I said, I'm unclear. 7) "The news" consists of something like 100 seperate "news groups". Most of the sites receiving the news receive ALL of it. (Necessary to be able to pass it on.) The news amounts to something like 1MB A DAY. Much of it is quite useful - for example there is a newsgroup for distribution of public-domain source code UNIX utilities. A lot of it is garbage consisting of random flames and endless requests for the same thing. ("Does anyone know about a PLUGH for the XYZZY machines?) While I've been waiting for uucp, and because not too many FIDO sysops are likely to want to shell out $350 for uucp, I've been thinking about other ways of doing it. I'm now leaning toward writing a program to be called xxcp. xxcp would be put in the public domain, and would be installed on both your FIDO system and a "friendly" usenet site. xxcp would send mail back and forth using the Xmodem protocol, instead of the proprietary (and, for all practical purposes, undocumented) protocol used by uucp. You would need a "very" friendly usenet site, since this would require them to install the xxcp program, make entries in their cron table, etc. On the other hand, you can offer THEM the ability to communicate with any MSDOS machines they may have. There is some precedent for this: there are sites on the net that are using Kermit for a link protocol, instead of uucp. I choose Xmodem instead, since it's more popular with micro users, and I have source for a pair of programs called SB and RB for UNIX which implement the Modem7 "send batch" and "receive batch" commands. It looks easier to work with than to try to cut only the necessary portions out of the Kermit source. There may be some political problems associated with fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:24 Page 10 FIDOs going onto the net. There has been some resistance to "hobbyists" participating in the net. People are worried about floods of junk mail and obscene, etc. messages. Personally, I think that BBS users are more likely to be well-behaved than the shipping clerk who has access to a UNIX system and just learned that he can send mail to "the rest of the world"... The MSDOS users of today are tomorrow's UNIX users. The net is going to have to face explosive growth eventually - better it should learn to cope with a few BBSs now, than to suddenly face thousands who just discovered the "uucp" command in their shiny new Xenix package later. --------------------------------------------------------- From: Jon Tara on FIDO #92 Subject: oops... An article that was published in FIDOnet newsletter #203 on making the Anchor Signalman MKXII work with FIDO was incorrect. I forgot to observe Heath's law: "Any kit should be tested by a complete idiot before printing the manual. Even so, there will still be at least one mistake that slips through. Furthermore, at least one idiot will get it right with the WRONG instructions." (Must explain the messages of thanks I got...) Anyway, thanks to one person who proved ME an idiot for not trying to build this from my own instructions. The INCORRECT step follows: 8) Solder the MIDDLE wire of the transistor to the cut trace, on the other side of the cut. This should be corrected to read: 8) Solder the LEFT-hand wire of the transistor to the cut trace, on the other side of the cut. (in step 9, a resistor gets soldered to "the remaining wire" of the transistor. This is the MIDDLE wire) Sorry for any inconvenience and/or hair-pulling this has caused. For anyone who missed the original article, and wants to use an Anchor with FIDO, I'll be glad to FIDOmail copies of the correct procedure. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Recently, here in Cherry Hill, NJ, a BBS system by the name "Hackers Heaven" was closed down by police. The sysop(s) and users of this system were trading pirated programs, unauthorized MCI access codes, passwords for several computers in the area, etc. Unlike what happended on the west coast where a system was used to post a single PACIFIC BELL access code without the sysop's knowledge, this fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:30 Page 11 sysop was well aware of the situation, and as far as I know, even supported it. (I assume this by rumor, and by what the name suggests). My viewpoint differs from the situation out on the west coast; in this case, it appears to be the sysops own damned fault! How can someone be as nieve as that! I'm glad the sysop out west was released without charges, but these kids should go to jail! It's shit like this that gives us sysops a bad name! The system was being run on an Apple IIe and with only a simple questionaire, users were granted access to use. Rumor also says that the FBI was also involved with some fake numbers of some sort. Charges seem to be based however on theft of access codes from Dial America; a local long-distance company. -Brian Sietz- Sysop FIDO#82 The following is a reprint from an article by David Lee Preston appearing in the March 12 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Editorial notes [] by myself appear within. About $35,000 worth of computer equipment has been confiscated from two homes in Cherry Hill and one in Voorhees Township as part of an investigation into an alleged ring of youthful computer hackers, Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell said yesterday. Investigators with search warrants seized computers, modems, printers, disk drives, software and other equipment, which four residents of the houses allegedly had used to gain access to Dial America, a two-year old long distance telephone service based in Camden, Asbell said. Although no arrests were made during the Saturday sweep, Asbell said his office planned to charge about 20 South Jersey youths with using personal computers to make long-distance calls through Dial America. Most of the members of the alleged ring live in Camden County, all are males, and the oldest is 20, he said. Hackers are personal-computer enthusiasts, often in their teens, who use their technical skills to gain illegal entry into private or corporate computer systems. [Ed: Bullshit! That is only the derrogitory term for "Hackers". The real meaning is more subtle and not so clearly defined. Hackers are generally computer enthusiasts, most often not associated with anything harmful. Using this definition, I myself am a "hacker"] Gade Kreckel, president of Dial America, said Dial America began an investigation in November after a customer reported that there were several calls on his bill he had not made. The firm, in the Wilson Building on Broadway, used its computers to identify calls being made with stolen account numbers and transferred those calls into fake accounts, he said. "Before the calls ever got onto our customers' bills, we transferred them into a fraud account," he said. "In other words, customers get a clean bill." The firm turned the case over the prosecutor's office about three weeks ago, Kreckel said. He said the fraudulent fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:39 Page 12 calls made during the investigation cost his firm as much as $6,000. Asbell said the alleged hackers would telephone other hackers on computers around the country and trade information such as computer access codes. "We have taped conversations between the computer hackers," Asbell said. "We have calls throughout probably most of the United States... Once you have the access code to Dial America, you can go trade it to somebody in the state of Oregon for the access code to VISA or Mastercard." Dial America says it has 4,000 customers in Burlington, Gloucester and Camden Counties. "Unless you are from South Jersey, you couldn't use our service," Kreckel said. "They would get on there and make long-distance calls. For example, one says, 'Do you have Pac-Man? OK, transmit it to me.' And in return, he might give him Donkey Kong, then pirate video games and send them back and forth." The alleged hackers also were trading AT&T credit-card numbers, Kreckel said. The first seizure took place about 7:30AM at the home of a Cherry Hill juvenile, Asbell said. Later that morning, investigators seized more equipment from a juvenile in Voorhees, he said. About 11PM, they executed a third search warrant at the Cherry Hill home of two brothers, ages 18 and 20, he said. At each house, Asbell said, the parents reacted with "actual shock and dismay as to what was taking place." He said the parents were "very cooperative in the first two instances" but that the Cherry HIll brothers' father initially resisted the investigators' efforts. "They don't realize that stealing from a Dial America, or a Sprint or MCI, is no different from walking into a 7-Eleven and stealing five or six thousand dollars," Kreckel said. The ability of long- distance companies to trace fraudulent usage has improved measurably in the last year, Kreckel said. "When the long distance-industry was in a different stage a year ago, computer hackers found it pretty easy to get into systems without being detected," he said. "But nowadays, it's such a stupid crime because it's so easy to catch them." "The sad part about it is it's almost 95 percent minors that are involved in this thing. And that's the case with almost all the computer hackers." *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= !! S P E C I A L E D I T I O N !! or The Complete FIDONET Nodebook *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= -------------------------------- |Submitted by: | |Christopher von Schilling | |Sysop FIDO NODE 388 | |Keene, NH - 300/1200 - 24 hrs. | |(603) 357-2090 | -------------------------------- fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:47 Page 13 Here I was, "mailing" another cry for help to T.J. somewhere in California (where it was warm and not snowing). I had fallen into the habit of mailing "urgent help messages" to Tom a few weeks back. Anyone ever use a NOVATION SMART CAT Plus modem? Well, neither has he. I had accessed his system frequently in the past and browsed through it. After all, how expensive could it really be? I found out. I also found out that everyone with problems ranging from "I'd like to use the scheduler to ring my alarm clock at 8:00 AM. Any suggestions?" to "What's an Orphan message?" would leave these kind of questions on FIDO 1. So, I fell into the habit of bouncing my questions off FIDO 1 too. All went well until, one morning, I found a reply on my board to one of my "urgent" problems from Fido 1, which in effect told me "I don't know". HA! He must be kidding, right? This is a joke?! If he doesn't know, who does? And that's it! An incredible thought occured to me at that moment. Never mind that I hadn't really been awake for more than an hour yet, I immediately hit the keyboard. My message was the longest I've ever "mailed". Did you know that a message form can only hold 46 lines? Trivia. But I squeezed it all in there. Every last bit. I listed the message one more time, to make sure there weren`t any mistakes in it, and re-read my work of ingenuity. I was asking Tom Jennings what he thought of my idea of a SPECIAL EDITION NEWSLETTER which would appear whenever we had enough material to publish an issue. This newsletter would contain detailed listings of all the FIDO NODES currently on-line. What type of hardware they were using, what their sysops were most interested and knowledgable in and what user base their FIDO targeted. Also, telephone numbers, hours of operation, baud rate and locations. Like the nodelist but completely different. With that kind of detailed information at your fingertips, you could try to have your technical questions answerd by another NODE nearest you which uses the same hardware and whose sysop would be willing to help you. This would stimulate communications between sysops and users who have access to the special edition(s). There'd be a new edition every time there's enough information to compile for a new publication. Sorted by Hardware? Who knows. This is what I suggested. Ho Ho Ho. I could use that kind of information. I'm sure many other sysops would like it too. Would he find someone to do it? Exactly one week later I received my reply from Tom Jennings himself: "That's a very good idea. I'm too busy but many people have requested just that kind of information. We need this type of listing. Go ahead and compile it!". I went out and had lunch. Something fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:53:55 Page 14 terrible had happend. My message was too long and got garbled in transit. Me? Compile THAT? How many NODES times how many lines of information? That would equal a lot of work. Wouldn't it? I hereby volunteer for just this job. (It looks rather good to read this on WordStar. Will it make FidoNews? We'll see). If all NODES cooperate and send me the information below in not TOO detailed form to FIDO 388 (see top of article) I think I can pull it off. (What am I talking about?) If you would like to participate and be listed in this kind of format, please send this information. You must be willing to answer other sysops' questions regarding any problems. If you are not interested in corresponding with other sysops or users, please don't participate. a) THE NAME OF YOUR BOARD b) TYPE OF COMPUTER YOU USE c) TYPE OF MODEM YOU USE d) WHICH VERSION OF FIDO e) YOUR (SYSOPS') NAME f) YOUR SPECIAL INTERESTS AND KNOWLEDGE g) IS THERE A SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP YOUR BOARD SERVES? h) WHERE CAN YOU (SYSOP) OFFER HELP i) TELEPHONE NUMBER j) PARAMETERS (BAUD RATE ETC.) k) LOCATION l) TIME OF OPERATION m) MISCELLANEOUS THINGS OF INTEREST TO OTHERS Please keep the information you'll send limited to this general form unless you have something of importance to add. I hope to distribute the compiled list in the same fashion as FIDONEWS. I wonder if this is something of interest and I hope many NODES will participate. I believe that this type of publication will tie all of us closer together and de-centralize the exchange of information by allowing us to communicate directly without bogging down FIDO 1. Finally, if you have any suggestions or problems regarding the above, please mail your correspondence to FIDO 388 as listed at the beginning of this article. I'm looking forward to receiving lots of listings from all sysops out there! Thank you very much, --Christopher von Schilling Sysop Fido Node 388 *=*=*=*=*=*==*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:54:01 Page 15 NOTICES FOR SALE -^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^- M E M O R Y C H I P S A L E ! -^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^- I have the following Dynamic RAM available at the lowest price. 256k 120ns FUJITSU 256Kx1.........@ $25.00/chip 256k 150ns NEC 256Kx1.........@ $20.00/ " 256k 150ns HITACHI/TOSHIBA 256Kx1.........@ $20.00/ " 128k 150ns OKI 128Kx1.........@ $25.00/ " 64k 120ns NEC 64Kx1.........@ $ 8.50/ " 64k 150ns NEC 64Kx1.........@ $ 8.00/ " 64k 150ns FUJITSU 64Kx1.........@ $ 5.00/ " 64k 200ns NEC 64Kx1.........@ $ 6.00/ " 64k 200ns MATSUSHITA 64Kx1.........@ $ 5.50/ " Large Scale Integration devices: 8087-3 6MHZ INTEL Math Co-processor for IBM PC $250.00 8087-2 8MHZ INTEL Math Co-processor for IBM PC $475.00 These co-processors are very difficult to obtain. Which means delivery time is INDEFINITE. A $100 non-refundable deposit required to order co-processors. Add $3.00 for UPS Blue Label Service Add $6.00 for Federal Express Digital Equipment Corportation sells the 256k upgrade option (PC1XX-AZ) for $695. You can get the SAME set here for $180. Send orders (Only money orders accepted, checks will be returned.) to: Advanced Software Applications 5258 Vickie Drive San Diego, California 92109 Please indicate on your order: BRAND, SIZE, QUANTITY & SHIPPING PREFERRED and of course your name and address. Further inquiries may be made via Fidonet to: Node #350. Addressed to: ASA (PRIVATE) Now a freebie! A dissertation on the differences between 150ns and 200ns Dynamic RAM. fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:54:06 Page 16 You might be asking yourself if its ok to put 150ns 64k or 256k Dynamic RAMs into an IBM PC. Its not only OK, its preferred! Also, there is NO problem with mixing 150ns chips with 200ns chips. ICs are made from extremely pure silicon, first refined in the form of a large ingot, usually shaped like a large 4" diameter sausage. A thin slice of ultra-pure silicon wafer is first coated with a photographically sensitive coating. The photosensitised wafer is exposed to light through a photo-reduced negative, which created the pattern of one layer of many transistors, with line widths typically of 2 to 3 microns. A micron is 1/1,000,000 of an inch. Next the photographic coating is developed like a negative. Where the light strikes or doesn't strike, the coating is removed. In effect, little openings are made in the coating, exposing the top surface of the ultra-pure silicon wafer in only a few, small locations. The wafer is then placed into a diffusion furnace where 'impurity' atoms of Phosphorous or Boron are permitted to diffuse into the surface of the silicon to a precisely calculated depth with calibrated oven temperature and time controls. The process of applying photographic sensitive coatings, exposure to light, and exposure to 'impurity' diffusion gases is repeated six to a dozen times. The final step will result in the application of minature deposits of aluminum on the top of the wafer, connecting as many as thousands of transistors into an Integrated Circuit (IC). At this point the wafer is cut into individual IC chips, called dies. On a 4" wafer you can expect around 144 chips of Dynamic RAMs. Now the dies are tested to see which ones turn out to be 150ns, 200ns, 250ns etc. and which don't work. A reason for variations of speed across a wafer is the ex- treme difficulty of optical alignment with the different photographic exposures required. Remember, line width tol- erances are only 2 to 3 microns. Also, quality varies be- cause of the random nature of the impurity doping diffusions, and the random nature of other impurities. Even contaminants within the refined silicon will cause a variation in the quality. Now you can see that all Dynamic RAMs of the same brand are 'identical twins', designed, fabricated, and processed the same way. Access time is only one parameter measured. Although it is a measurement of the overall quality of the chip. All the ICs are meant to test out to 150ns or better. So, when you buy higher speed memory ICs, you are nearly always buying higher quality devices. fidonews -- 18 Mar 85 18:54:14 Page 17 An IBM PC memory board can tolerate Dynamic RAMs as slow as 250ns, however, when you use chips slower than 200ns, you are running with borderline defective IC's. Most likely problems will insue. I strongly recommend you use 150ns chips. They are better quality! Your computer will not run any faster if its not designed to operate on 150ns parts, but, you will most likely have fewer problems overall. Your computer will not run faster with faster memory because the processor dictates the execution speed. If your processor is designed to wait at least 200ns for something, faster memory won't affect the wait time. Dynamic RAMs are NMOS devices slow down as they get hot. The IBM PC has a very bad air flow design, indicated by the extremely warm temperatures found inside the IBM PC. Therefore with 150ns devices, you have more room for timing syncronization when the PC gets warm. Have no fear of mixing 150ns chips with 200ns chips as long as your computer circuit was designed to handle slower devices. Comments on brands of ICs: The ranking of 64k Dynamic RAM by quaility in Japan is now: 1. NEC 2. FUJITSU or HITACHI 3. MITSUBISHI 4. TOSHIBA 5. MATSUSHITA or OKI Originally it was thought that HITACHI was the number one quality product because it was the brand IBM initially purchased and installed into their PCs. Now it is the author's understanding that IBM has contracted to buy the 256K RAMs from both NEC and HITACHI in such large quantities that NEC & HITACHI are modifying their prod- uction lines to go from 64k to 256k to satisfy this new requirement. If you believe there are inaccuracies in this report, feel free to direct them to Fido #350, user: ASA. There is no intent to mislead anyone. Author: Rick Eliopoulos, Sysop #350 -^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^- WANTED