Volume 4, Number 28 27 July 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings 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 1987 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. Three Weeks to FidoCon! Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Is Echomail Doomed? ...................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 The Maxum Turbo XE - A Serious Computer .................. 2 FidoNet in Japan ......................................... 6 MegaList: A Cross-System File Listing .................... 10 Public Key Encryption for FidoNet Mail ................... 11 Sirius 0.50 - A Review ................................... 18 Sports Net ECHO Conference ............................... 23 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 24 Broadcast Booth - In The Network ......................... 24 The Regular Irregular Column ............................. 25 4. NOTICES .................................................. 30 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 30 Latest Software Versions ................................. 30 International FidoNet Conference Registration Form ....... 31 IFNA Board of Directors Ballot ........................... 32 FidoNews 4-28 Page 1 27 Jul 1987 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Is Echomail Doomed? For some time now, and even more so lately, we've been watching the consequences of our regrettable lack of security. FidoNet is reasonably secure about sending mail to the right people (if you don't look too closely at mail pickups), but it's wide open when it comes to receiving mail. In normal network mail this isn't all that much of a problem, but with echomail we find ourselves holding a kettle of fish of quite a different color. I have seen two major conferences whither and almost die under what amount to terrorist attacks. Can we defend ourselves? Security measures can be developed, surely, but will they do the trick? I suspect not, for a few reasons. 1) Most of the measures proposed are for securing predefined conference links, which leaves normal network mail wide open. 2) For good reason. Securing normal netmail is not practical. How can you prearrange security measures with a new node across the country that you didn't even know existed? 3) Even if we secured all links between all systems everywhere, that still won't stop people from willingly linking in a known terrorist. 4) Besides, anyone could fabricate messages for propagation over a secure line that appear to originate anywhere at all. It starts to look pretty hopeless. Is echomail doomed? Well, not quite. When one looks at which conferences were attacked, it becomes apparent that it is only the large national or international conferences that really present a good target. Terrorists thrive on attention and response, which they don't really get in the smaller conferences. Not to mention that in a smaller conference it is correspondingly easier to identify where the terrorist is linking in. Echomail will thrive. People will continue to establish new conferences for every topic under the sun. Echomail is far too important a part of our subculture to die out now. But I suspect that the heydey of the large international conference may be drawing to a close. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 2 27 Jul 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= From 107/246 The Maxum Turbo XE - A Serious Computer The following is an in-depth review of a fine clone that you should consider in your shopping list if you are looking for a new computer in the near future. Data Sheet For MAXUM TURBO XE Personal Computer ----------------------------------------------- MAXUM TURBO XE COMPUTER Sold by 47th Street Photo. The basic unit comes configured as follows: Maxum Turbo XE system unit. Phoenix type fast Ram test BIOS. AT style keyboard with indicator lights built in. 256k Ram (256k Chips)-(Expandable to 1024k). One full height 5 1/2 inch 360k floppy drive. One disk controller for up to 2 floppy drives. Built in game port. 8 Expansion Slots (2 Half - 6 Full Size Slots) FCC approved slide type case. Approved as Class B computing device. 180 Watt Power Supply. MS-DOS 3.2 And GW-BASIC are included. Dual speed (4.77/8 Mhz 8088-2) processor. Socket for 8087 co-processor chip. Built in (battery powered) clock/calendar card. Keyboard (key operated) lock-out switch. Power, Turbo, Hard Disk indicator lights. Built in reset switch in rear of machine. Internal speaker in front of system unit. 4 power plugs coming out of power supply. Price as configured above is $499.00 plus tax. The unit comes securely packed in a double carton and each unit is tested before being released for sale. There is a sticker attached to the rear of each unit with a number to call for service and/or advice (not toll free) you might need. We called twice and each time the phone was answered by a polite technician who had a thorough knowledge of the computer and was a great help in setting up the computer. Each unit comes with a 5 book set of documentation complete with excellent instructions for the novice as well as the experienced user. I would judge that anyone could have this unit unpacked and fully FidoNews 4-28 Page 3 27 Jul 1987 operational inside of 25 minutes from opening the carton for the first time. The documentation is from Microsoft for the most part and is well written and should be a great help in setting up the system as well as utilizing the Ram from 640k to 1024k should you decide to install the extra Ram yourself at the time of purchase or at a later date. The system as tested had some extra features that were user- installed at the time of purchase. They were: Full 1024k Ram on the motherboard. IBM type RGB color card from Maxum. RS-232 card from Honeywell. One extra 5 1/2 inch floppy drive. One 22 Megabyte Miniscribe hard drive. Orchid Turbo 286E Card with 2 Megabytes Of Ram. Copy II Pc copy board. Approximate cost of system as tested is: $ 2399.00 The system runs all the usual PC software such as Lotus, Wordstar, Flight Simulator, dBase III+, as well as Fido, Opus, SEAdog, Telix, PC-TALK, Qmodem and Crosstalk XVI. Lattice C, Turbo Basic, Quick Basic, Microsoft Cobol, and the Microsoft Assembler were all tested and ran with no problems whatsoever. The system appears to be 100% compatible, as we have not found any software that will not run on this system at the time this article was written. Below you will find some data we compiled from the various tests we ran on the system. There are 3 results reported for each test. 1) Normal speed mode is the mode in which the computer boots up and according to Norton's Sysinfo is slightly faster than a normal PC. 2) Turbo speed is the user selectable speed increase gained by typing the Cntrl-Alt-2 combination of keys. This IS NOT the Orchid turbo speed which follows. 3) 286 Turbo speed is when the Orchid 286E card is activated and running. In this mode you are running for all intensive purposes an IBM AT clone at 8 Mhz with an Intel 80286 chip handling the processing. Please note that in this mode it is possible to access 704k for DOS to run in, as opposed to a maximum 640k for the other two modes we tested. Maxum Turbo XE In Normal Speed Mode FidoNews 4-28 Page 4 27 Jul 1987 ----------------------------------- SI-System Information, Version 3.10, (C) 1984-86 IBM/PC Built-in BIOS programs dated Monday, September 15, 1986 Operating under DOS 3.20 5 logical disk drives, A: through E: DOS reports 640 K-bytes of memory: 68 K-bytes used by DOS and resident programs 572 K-bytes available for application programs A search for active memory finds: 640 K-bytes main memory (at hex 0000-A000) 32 K-bytes display memory (at hex B800-C000) BIOS signature found at hex paragraph C800 Computing performance index relative to IBM/PC: 1.7 Maxum Turbo XE In Turbo Speed Mode ---------------------------------- SI-System Information, Version 3.10, (C) 1984-86 IBM/PC Built-in BIOS programs dated Monday, September 15, 1986 Operating under DOS 3.20 5 logical disk drives, A: through E: DOS reports 640 K-bytes of memory: 68 K-bytes used by DOS and resident programs 572 K-bytes available for application programs A search for active memory finds: 640 K-bytes main memory (at hex 0000-A000) 32 K-bytes display memory (at hex B800-C000) BIOS signature found at hex paragraph C800 Computing performance index relative to IBM/PC: 3.0 Maxum Turbo XE With Orchid Turbo 286E Card Installed ---------------------------------------------------- SI-System Information, Version 3.10, (C) 1984-86 This computer might be identified by this: (C) Copyright 1986 More Computing. All Rights Reserved. Built-in BIOS programs dated Monday, November 8, 1982 Operating under DOS 3.20 5 logical disk drives, A: through E: DOS reports 704 K-bytes of memory: 87 K-bytes used by DOS and resident programs 617 K-bytes available for application programs A search for active memory finds: 640 K-bytes main memory (at hex 0000-A000) 127 K-bytes display memory (at hex A040-C000) Computing performance index relative to IBM/PC: 9.2 So as you can see from the test results above the stock machine in TURBO mode is much faster than a normal PC and of course when FidoNews 4-28 Page 5 27 Jul 1987 the 286E co-processing board is added the speed jumps from 3.0 to 9.2. The Maxum XE in my Benchmark Test using PKARC to archive the following group of files used in my ARC tests. Filename Length Method Size Ratio -------- ------ ------ ------ ----- AUTOEXEC.BAT 33 Crunched 31 7% COMMAND.COM 17664 Crunched 14787 17% CORRSTAR.OVR 57344 Crunched 28768 50% INTERNAL.DCT 35584 Squeezed 33871 5% LF.COM 512 Crunched 382 26% MAILMRGE.OVR 11520 Crunched 7533 35% PROKEY.EXE 13824 Crunched 6360 54% WC.EXE 12288 Crunched 8315 33% WINSTALL.COM 1152 Crunched 746 36% WINSTALL.OVR 38528 Crunched 22784 41% WPE.COM 21376 Crunched 16622 23% WPEMSGS.OVR 29056 Crunched 16072 45% WPEOVLY1.OVR 41216 Crunched 33172 20% WS1.PRO 29 Stored 29 0% WSCOLOR.BAS 6656 Crunched 2967 56% ---- ------ ------ ----- 0015 286782 192439 33% The following results were recorded when PKARC was used to create an archive file from the above files. Normal Speed Turbo Speed 286 Turbo Speed -------------------------------------------- 01:12:43 00:44:99 00:20:00 -------------------------------------------- Using Wordstar and Nodelist.184 I performed a standard move cursor to end of file test. The length of the nodelist used was 149436 bytes. Normal Speed Turbo Speed 286 Turbo Speed -------------------------------------------- 00:33:33 00:16:12 00:14:75 -------------------------------------------- Using PC Lab's Bench02 test which basically finds prime numbers the following results occurred. Normal Speed Turbo Speed 286 Turbo Speed -------------------------------------------- 00:27:00 00:17:00 00:05:00 -------------------------------------------- All in all, a fine computer. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 6 27 Jul 1987 Yoshi Mikami, November 26, 1986 FidoNet in Japan [Editor's note: Sorry for the unusually long delay on this article. It came to us via a very circuitous route.] *** DOMESTIC NEWS *** FIDO/COLLIE SYSOPS' MEETING The November Fido/Collie Sysops' meeting was attended by Tatsuyuki Arai, Yoshi Mikami, Maki Ohtoh and Junsei Yamada. It was held on 11/14/86 at 7:00, at Renoir coffee shop (phone 03- 493-1454) near the east exit of Osaki Station in Tokyo. Arai, Jun Moriya, John Takiguchi and Yamada had started this meeting on every second Friday of the month from last August to discuss common FidoNet issues and concerns. For Mikami and Ohtoh, it was the first time to meet these people. We jointly decided that we will write to International FidoNet Association, St. Louis, Missouri, to get the FidoNet region number for Japan. We do not want a host node under Pacific Region 12, out of Honolulu, Hawaii, as other Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia and New Zealand are operating. Mikami will write the letter. Arai wants to use the POLL and PICKUP functions on the receive- only FIDO node in Tokyo from his FIDO at home. Those functions do not work properly for him. Tom Jenning's 8/85 documentation that he has does not explain in sufficient detail how to use these functions. We will get assistance from Fido operators in U.S. We know that there is a Usenet gateway, run by Bob Hartman, on FidoNet 101/101, according to the 8/86 Fido documentation. Does anyone know how to contact a Usenet node in Japan? Before switching to Fido, Arai ran Collie in October to find that Collie handles the Japanese Kanji characters nicely. (Ohtoh and Mikami have some Japanese messages in their systems.) However, Collie has a minor problem in handling Japanese characters, in the sense that some Japanese characters are interpreted as Collie's control characters. We will write to D. Plunkett when Jun Moriya returns from his trip to Australia to get the author's help (because he knows the technical details). Arai wanted to confirm, and all the meeting attendees agreed, that FidoNet in Japan will be operated on a non-profit basis, without discrimination of any kind. The name of FidoNet Japan was authorized to be used on Takiguchi's Fido BBS by Tom Jennings earlier this year, according FidoNews 4-28 Page 7 27 Jul 1987 to Arai. (The Newsletter Editor doubt that this has any significance, but it is documented here as this was discussed at the meeting.) Any would-be Fido/Collie sysops are welcome to attend this monthly meeting. The next meeting is on December 12, at the same time, at the same place. If English assistance is needed, help will be provided. COLLIE NET TEST IN KANSAI AREA After some pioneering work in April and May 1986, the Fido/Collie activities picked up in the Kansai area recently. Geki Hagiwara provided the following experience report: * * * * * * * A BBS network FidoNet was formed and tested in Kansai area in Sep/Oct 1986. Actually the software was Collie (Colossus) which simulates FidoNet packet transfer protocol. One of the reasons we chose Collie, not Fido, was that Collie resets the modem every time the session is over. It is believed that some modems cannot detect 1200/300 and CCITT/BELL in particular sequences. In such case resetting the modem may be effective. Through our experience Hi-Modem 1200C looked working satisfactorily. The members of TMCNET and their equipments are: NET NODE Name Area Phone H/W --- ---- ------------- ----- ------------ -------- 001 001 Joe Takemura Osaka 06-674-1933 JX-5+HDD 002 K. Sawaguchi Osaka 06-XXX-XXXX JX-4 002 001 Geki Hagiwara Yasu 0775-86-0919 JX-4+HDD 002 Ken Iwamoto Kyoto 075-XXX-XXXX JX-5 003 Junji Tanaka Shiga 0778-XX-XXXX JX-5 First, each node operator entered messages to several members and the other sysops; then we set Net mail time and watched how Collie sends and receives packets. We had a hard time to find the best combination of modem initialization commands and DIP switch setting. (We were helped by Maki Ohtoh.) We used the following MODMINIT.BBS file: ATX1 ATH1 (one blank line - wait 2 seconds) ATS0=1 ATV0 ATH0 FidoNews 4-28 Page 8 27 Jul 1987 The Collie startup command was: A>COLLIE /2 /M2 /I1200 /C32 | | | |____ Carrier mask bit | | |____ Modem init. baud rate | |____ Modem type |____ COM2 port The modem DIP switch setting was: SW1 DTR OFF SW2 Result no effective SW3 Return ON (should have no effect) SW4 Echo no effective SW5 Answer no effective SW6 CD OFF SW7 Tel.line OFF (depends on phone line) SW8 Command ON Although the modem operation was unstable like trying to call while the modem is off hook, the test resulted in a great success. We just tested the network formed by JX systems, but this network would not be open to public until the mail charge system is established. * * * * * * * For other details, contact Hagiwara or Joe Takemura at the BBS sytem number (at night only) listed above. FIDO/COLLIE SYSTEMS IN OPERATION To our knowledge, the following five Fido/Collie BBS systems are currently operating on regular basis: 017-653-5181 ext. 226-7408, Loki BBS (Fido), by Jon Spelbring, 24 hours, 1200/300 (CCITT & Bell) 045-761-9406, SurfSide Net (Fido), by Tatsuyuki Arai, 24 hours, 2400/1200/300 bps (CCITT & Bell) 045-894-7656, Collie Yokohama, by Maki Ohtoh, 24 hours, 1200/300 bps (CCITT & Bell) 0466-27-2077, Big Blue BBS (Collie), by Yoshi Mikami, 10:00-11:30 PM Japan Std Time, 1200/300 (C&B) 082-842-6401, Strawberry Doughnut Net (Collie), by Hitoshi Sugimoto, 10:30-11:55 PM JST, 200/300 (C&B) Fido Japan 03-432-0185 by John Takiguchi is temporarily closed. Mikami, Ohtoh and Sugimoto have been exchanging net messages very successfully at 10:45-11:00 PM time slot, since early October, between Fujisawa/Yokohama and Hiroshima, a distance of 500 miles. After much experiment, Infotech's Hi-Modem 1200C among the several JATE-approved Hayes-compatible (AT-command compatible) modems was found to handle the Fido/Collie net message transmission. They would like to hear other people's experiences FidoNews 4-28 Page 9 27 Jul 1987 on other modems, because there definitely is a need here for good modem competition. Ken Sugimoto has translated most of the Collie .MNU files into Japanese for easier operator interface, and has been operating a Collie node since October, somewhere near the Fish Market in Tsukiji, Tokyo. We'll get his phone number shortly. We do not claim to know everything happening in Japan regarding Fido or Collie. Please contact anyone of us to let others know what's going on. LETTER TO REQUEST JAPANESE REGION NUMBER SENT A letter was sent 11/16/86 by Mikami to International FidoNet Association requesting a region number for Japan, with copies to Tom Jennings (author of Fido BBS software) and Dan Plunkett (author of Colossus BBS sofware). A fifty dollar check was enclosed as our donation. Copies were also sent to people mentioned in Item 1.a. above. *** INTERNATIONAL NEWS *** MESSAGE EXCHANGE WITH HONG KONG Katsu Shintani called FIDO BBS in Hong Kong 00852-5-893-7856 in October. This is the nearest Fido/Collie BBS overseas that we know of. In return, Fido Japan and Collie Yokohama received a few messages from Hong Kong. ASSISTANCE TO OTHER ASIAN COUNTRIES There are several FidoNet systems running in Australia and Indonesia according to the 3/86 nodelist. We would like to identify other Fido systems that may be operating in this region of the world. We also offer assistance if help is needed to set up Fido or Collie BBS in the Asia-Pacific countries. For those who may not know, Colossus ("Collie") is Fido- compatible software that is beginning to be used this year. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 10 27 Jul 1987 Chris Irwin Miami Shareware, 135/68 MegaList A Cross-System File Listing (YOU can easily join!) I was in one of my more creative moods the other day; I've finally written a system that I've wanted to for quite some time now: MegaList. The "MegaList" is an alphabetized file listing that combines the files from ALL PARTICIPATING Fido/Opus systems. If you've ever needed a file, but didn't know where to find it, the MegaList is a good place to look; scan down the list for the file you need, and listed next to it are the BBSs that have it online. The MegaList is available for download or SEAdog file request from 135/68. The following files are online now: MEGALIST.ARC/TXT The National (unfiltered) MegaList MEGA-ARC.ARC/TXT The National ARChive MegaList MEGA-TXT.ARC/TXT The National TXT/DOC MegaList ML-UPD.ARC MegaList Update Software YOUR system can be added to the NATIONAL MegaList if you simply run the update program, ML-UPD. This program will create an update file based on YOUR system information and FILES.BBS contents. This data is then ARCed and Net-mailed to 135/68 for central collection. The NATIONAL MegaList is updated each day at 6:15AM and posted for download or file request. Placing your system in the MegaList will let the rest of the world know what's on your system without everyone having to call and look. The ML-UPD program is easy and only takes about 1-2 minutes to run. All you must do is send a MegaList update to Miami at least once every 45 days, and you will be in the daily MegaList update. As of this writing, I haven't released ML-COL, the "host" processing/collection program. I will be releasing this system in its entirety before the end of August. If you're interested in creating a LOCAL MegaList for YOUR area, please contact me for the list creation software. Chris Irwin, Miami Shareware, 135/68 (305) 232-9365 (300/1200/2400/9600-HST) Other Miami Shareware releases: (as of July 14th) ARCMSG17.ARC ARC and Purge message bases (Fido/Opus) MS-AR25.ARC Accounts Receivable System MS-IC25.ARC Inventory Control System ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 11 27 Jul 1987 AUTHENTIC SECURE SECRET FIDO MAIL WITH PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION INTRODUCTION ============ This article was written by Prodex Labs, for examination and comment by IFNA (International Fidonet Association) Sysops, members, Fidonet users, and others interested in electronic mail and security. Prodex Labs (Lee Rothstein, Phil Zimmermann & Steve Welch) is very much interested in your comments and suggestions. PRODEX LABS, PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION & FIDO ----------------------------------------- We are now about ready to deliver C-based modules that can carry out public key encryption. We are writing this article because of the extreme relevance we see of public key cryptography to electronic mail. We assume electronic mail is near and dear to your hearts, and we think you might be interested in the application of public key encryption to Fidomail and Fidonet transfers. The discussion, we provide here, on public key cryptography aims specifically at electronic mail applications. Public key encryption technology allows the convenient distribution of messages through an electronic mail system secure against other users, sysops ("superusers") and even systems programmers. It allows this security in the face of inherently insecure networks and hosts. This we think is a feature whose time has come. We think it lends itself well to the expansion of Fidonet services, as well as the opportunity for Fido sysops to unobtrusively draw revenue from a subset of Fido services-- specifically those that have to do with private and commercial mail. Specifically, we suspect the lack of privacy of messages (from Sysops and technotwits) has discouraged the use of Fido as a national distribution medium for personal mail, and business mail. Second, the lack of an authentication mechanism has discouraged commercial concerns from using Fidomail as a distribution mechanism for authentic marketing programs and documents such as ads, coupons and purchase orders. By adding these commercial services to Fido, the revenue produced could be used to subsidize other Fido services such as mass storage (downloads) and Techline distribution (long distance charges). The authentication capability mentioned in the previous paragraph might also be of use directly to Fidonet as it grows. Authentication would allow nodes that are operating in a store and forward sub-net to prove their legitimacy prior to a relay operation. Since we are not familiar with the daily operational problems of Hosts, we do not know if we have proposed a solution to a non-existent problem. Finally, we think that the recent introduction of "Dutchie" may be one of the key ingredients to the success of the introduction FidoNews 4-28 Page 12 27 Jul 1987 and use of public key encryption in Fidonet. For those of you not yet familiar with it, Dutchie is the private delivery point implementation for Fidonet by Henk Wevers. SINGLE KEY ENCRYPTION: WHY PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION IS REQUIRED! -------------------------------------------------------------- Public key encryption technology differs from the more well-known single key technology in that each person has two keys associated with him/her--a public key, and a private key. (DES--Data Encryption Standard--is the most well-known example of single key encryption.) In public key encryption, the public key is known by everyone and either can be looked up by the user from a table of keys versus user names or automatically looked up by the applications software (e.g., electronic mail software). In single key encryption, Fred encrypts file 'nerd.msg' with the key "secret_potion". When Bill wants to decrypt the file, he must have been told by Fred what the key for decrypting (i.e., encrypting) 'nerd.msg' is. Specifically, Bill must supply the key "secret_potion" to decrypt 'nerd.msg'. If "secret_potion" is always associated with Fred's files, then Bill knows the key for those files that Fred does not want him to see. More succinctly, the decryption and encryption functions are inverses of each other. Symbolically: (1) encrypted_file <- sk_encrypt(file, key) (2) file <- sk_encrypt(encrypted_file, key) i.e., decryption is encryption and the key is the same going in both directions The above notation assumes that objects with the same name and only objects with the same name are identical. Let's look at the consequences of the logic of single key encryption within an electronic mail system. Anyone that wants to send secret messages to someone else must either know the recipient's one and only secret key, or relinquish their own secret key, or maintain a list of secret keys by recipient or file; not a very attractive alternative. What's worse, if the key information is exchanged by users through the mail system, then the sysop has a crack at the key. This seems very likely when you consider that you probably want the mail system itself to automatically monitor, maintain and administer the keys because of the previously described problems. PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION ===================== PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION EXPLAINED ------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 13 27 Jul 1987 These and other problems can be made to disappear with a public key encryption system. The public and private keys make a matched, idiosyncratic set. A file encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted by the private key. A file encrypted by the private key can only be decrypted by the public key. These properties can be used to significant advantage in an electronic mail system. The obvious advantage of the public key technology over the more normal single private key technology such as DES, is that a user does not have to give away his/her private key. Secrecy ------- If you want secrecy in a message that you send us, you encrypt the message with our public key and then we decrypt it with our private key. Signature Function ------------------ If you want to authenticate a message as really coming from you, you encrypt it with your private key and then we decrypt it with your public key. If your public key does not make the message intelligible then it wasn't encrypted with your private key and therefore it didn't come from you--the one and only person who has access to your private key. Secrecy & Authentication ------------------------ The secrecy and authentication encryptions outlined above can be combined sequentially to provide a complete framework of security for electronic mail. Symbolically, we could describe these properties as: If A were sending a message to B: (1) encrypted_file <- pk_encrypt(file, public_key_B) (2) file <- pk_decrypt(encrypted_file, private_key_B) (1) Would be used by the sender to achieve privacy. (2) Would be used by the receiver to achieve "legibility." AND (3) encrypted_file <- pk_encrypt(file, private_key_A) (4) file <- pk_decrypt(encrypted_file, public_key_A) (3) Would be used by the sender to achieve authentication. (4) Would be used by the receiver to prove authentication and achieve "legibility." If we wished privacy and authentication in a message from A to B: FidoNews 4-28 Page 14 27 Jul 1987 (5) double_encrypted_file <- pk_encrypt(pk_encrypt(file, public_key_B), private_key_A) (6) file <- pk_decrypt(pk_decrypt(double_encrypted_file, private_key_B), public_key_A) (5) Would be used by the sender to achieve privacy and authentication. (6) Would be used by the receiver to achieve "legibility", and prove authentication. In the above notation we again assume that objects with the same name and only objects with the same name are equivalent. OTHER REQUIREMENTS & PROPERTIES ------------------------------- Several other properties of public key encryption require explanation to fully understand how security can be maintained and how a mail system can work. First, the program that generates the key pairs can be widely distributed so that it can be used by each user privately and securely. Second, the algorithm that generates the public key from the private key is not reversible either by the generating program or by any other program a hacker would write. Third, the kinds of keys generated and required by the encrypt / decrypt function(s) are on the order of a 1000 bits. This is what makes trial and error computation of the private key extremely unlikely to the point of impossibility, and also what makes users generating like public keys unlikely. Fourth, the electronic mail nodes (for Fidonet, Fido nodes) would have to provide a key server function. Once a user had calculated his public key from a private key he would have to submit it to a node to be paired with his/her user ID. The server function would also have to supply the public key to private mail sent to the corresponding user ID. Another major function of the key server is an automatic certification process that is beyond the scope of a first release product or this paper. Finally, for performance sake, any reasonable implementation of public key cryptography would transparently (unknown to users) invoke an internal method of single key encryption. However, all user and crackers would ever (or could ever) see is the public key mechanisms. IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION WITHIN THE FIDO ENVIRONMENT ============================================================== THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM -------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 15 27 Jul 1987 If we were to directly implement an automatic, public key cryptography security system into Fido mail that would avoid sysops having any possibility of access to the private keys or the mail prior to encryption, we would have to accomplish the following: (a) We would have to add a secure mail option to the terminal emulation program. We would further have to modify the user's terminal emulation program so that all mail text entered was encrypted before each line was sent by the user to the mail edit/entry function on the BBS. There are some outs here, but they are pretty well invalidated by several properties of BBS software. First, mail entry is designed to be an online editing activity rather than via upload. Second, the mail entry function is designed to handle pure text and not the binary files that result from encryption. Third, most mail input software strongly limits the length and format (e.g., line length, blank lines, use of tabs) of input messages. If one uses "ASCII transfer" capability there is a possibility the file will fail the length test or be modified by the format assumptions, because it was not edited with the length and format tests operative. Fourth, the prompting feature of the mail editor very often interferes with ASCII upload. (b) We would have to make modifications to the BBS mail edit/entry function so that some text was accepted in unencrypted format (i.e., 'To:' and 'From:' information) and the remainder was in encrypted format (i.e., 'Subject:' and body of message. ('From:' can be hidden if BBS Sysops do not object.) (c) We would have to add a public key server function to the BBS that would maintain and service public keys. This would also have to allow for the distribution of keys from node to node. (d) We would have to make sure that encryption did not interfere with Fidomail routing line additions to the text body. This theory will not work or rather will not work without a ground swell of support for private mail. We cannot get control of all of the following simultaneously: (a) user terminal emulation software, (b) Fido mail entry software, (c) Fido general BBS software, (d) Fido networking and mail exchange software. How do we create the ground swell, then? FIRST STEPS ----------- Step 1 ------ We develop two program functions (they may or may not actually be separate programs) that can be distributed via Fido. Currently, we estimate we can have these two programs done within two FidoNews 4-28 Page 16 27 Jul 1987 months. The first program is a DOS (Unix style) filter. It has two functions. First, given one file that contains the private key and a second file that contains the text to be encrypted, this first program, which I will call 'pk_crypt', provides an output file that is encrypted and can be decrypted with the public key. This serves the authentication function. Second, 'pk_crypt' can encrypt a file with public key so that it can be decrypted with the private key. This provides the privacy function. The second program generates unique key pairs. Step 2 ------ Sysops provide a message section and a coordinated file section. The message section allows users to notify each other that there are secure messages that have been uploaded to the respective users that have been notified via standard Fido text message. The file section is not only a safe (reliable, not secure) port for uploaded secure message files but also for a single text file that contains a list of the mapping of user IDs to public keys. Users upload their public keys as they generate them and the sysops collate these standard format subfiles into a single standard format public key-user ID list. We will provide documentation not only for the use of the program, but also for how users can "certify" new users and new keys, since we will not at this stage be able to provide a key server automated certification process. Step 3 ------ Sysops provide a standard service that allows binary files to be "attached to" Fidomail messages. Nothing automatic is implied by the previous sentence. Step 4 ------ We would have to provide a mail function that from the same level of menu allowed the entry of a text tag message into the message system, followed by the immediate upload of an encrypted (perhaps archived) file to the secure message file section. The inverse of these two processes would also have to be provided. Users would have to be able, from the same level of message menu, to first read a tag message, and, then, immediately, download the associated secure binary message file. . . . WHAT DO YOU THINK? ================== This is a lot to lay on anyone in one swell foop. What do you FidoNews 4-28 Page 17 27 Jul 1987 think about practically any of this? We are especially interested in your views and ideas as to how (or if) it can fit into Fidonet. We await your responses. Lee Rothstein, Phil Zimmermann, Steve Welch Prodex Laboratories ------ ------------ COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING o Computer and communications system product development: Software, Hardware & Integration o Marketing requirements, product, business & strategic plans o Market research o New venture evaluation o Technical marketing, marketing programs, seminar development o Product definition, architecture development, systems engineering, human interface design o Strategic information systems & computerized marketing Lee D. Rothstein Prodex Laboratories 7723 Arlington Drive Boulder, CO 80303-3207 (303) 499-8716 (Voice) We can be contacted via any of these BBSes, or via FidoNet at one of these BBSes: o Microlink B Fido. Fido 104/108. (303) 972-4181. o Eighth Sea Fido. Fido 104/610. (303) 252-9235. o Day's End Fido. Fido 104/ 20. (303) 650-5636. o Mile Hi Tech Fido. Fido 104/ 56. (303) 973-9338. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 18 27 Jul 1987 Patrick McDonald, 109/657 Sirius v0.50 - The FOS-Compatible Message Base Manager "... and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by" --- Masefield Sirius, a star in Canis Major also known as the dog star, has been guiding mariners in the Northern hemisphere for centuries. Sirius, the message base manager by Bob Klahn of 150/1 will now add a new twist to the common definition by helping solve your message base manipulation and navigation problems. No matter what software you currently use to interact with your Fido/Opus/SEAdog message base, Sirius has features that will help make it the message manager of choice on your system. In particular, Sirius 0.50: * Provides universal context-sensitive help via the "?" key. * Adapts its prompting to your needs and level of expertise while keeping required keystrokes to a minimum. * Supports one hundred message areas. * Recognizes EchoMail and NetMail areas, and allows them to be addressed by name as well as by number. * Edits new or existing messages with the configurable outside text editor of your choice, or with its own line-oriented editor. * Quotes replied-to message text with prefixing that YOU choose, and with the option to prefix the quoted author's lines only. * Moves and copies messages to flat files, to the printer, to other message areas, low or high, up or down, and with or without "stamping". * Groups messages logically, in ways YOU define, using a library of over three dozen Boolean, integer, and string functions. Operations may be performed on a message group as a unit, or group definitions may be used to filter the retrieval of individual messages. * Can record your interactive keystrokes in script form for later playback. Yes, Sirius will write your scripts for you! * Allows its complete functionality to be accessed locally, remotely, or through its automated scripts. * Provides access to DOS from within the Sirius environment. The Basics ~~~~~~~~~~ FidoNews 4-28 Page 19 27 Jul 1987 The entire interactive interface of Sirius is designed to minimize the number of keystrokes entered. Many of the main menu commands have lower submenus, and commands may be stacked as appropriate, with white space needed only when ambiguity might otherwise result. In addition, the "?" character is available at all menus to provide context sensitive help to guide you along. As a message base manager, Sirius provides you with all the usual functions, and then some. You may select a message area not only by the usual method of area number, but by the associated EchoMail area tag as well. If you have many message areas or are in the habit of occasionally reorganizing your message areas, this feature makes it easier to jump into an echo area. The entire area name need not be specified when utilizing this feature, but only enough to uniquely identify it. Messages may be retrieved in a number of ways (forward, backward, and by links), and when retrieving messages it is not necessary to view the entire text. You may tell Sirius to only view message text until a given text string is encountered (such as 'SEEN-BY: '), and as indicated in the example, this is usually used to squelch the EchoMail routing information. Shifting into 2nd Gear ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can do a lot more with messages than just retrieve them and display them to your screen. Sirius provides features for moving messages around to various locations. You may copy messages to a file (optionally either appending or overwriting the file), to your printer, or to other locations in the message system. These "other locations" encompass copying the message to another area as well as different spots within the same area. When moving a message, you may optionally ask Sirius to include a "stamp" line in the copied message (much like the Opus forwarding information but much more concise). The Doctor's Office ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, you want to change something about a message? The Doctor function provides the means of changing virtually every aspect of a message IN PLACE, including message header fields, body text, flags, and attach filenames. The Body doctor is also a powerful tool all by itself, providing a full-featured line-oriented text editor for the message body. The line editor makes extensive use of PC editing keys while providing control key mapping for remote usage and local keyboards that don't have these keys. Selected portions of the message body may be re-wrapped at will and to any line width that you like. You may also import text from external files. As powerful as the editing features inherent to Sirius are, you may need to do something to a message body not provided by Sirius, or may simply have a preference for a full-screen editor. This is no problem since Sirius provides support for editing message bodies with the external text editor of your choice. FidoNews 4-28 Page 20 27 Jul 1987 ... And you may quote me on that! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When replying to an existing message, Sirius provides a quoting feature that is unsurpassed by any other message system. You are not locked into any particular reply prefix, but rather may specify your own "designer quote" to be used for prefixing selected portions of the text of the replied-to message. Sirius does not just blindly prefix the entire original message text when forming the reply-quoted message (although it can if you desire) but actually has the ability to prefix only those portions of the original message that ARE NOT ALREADY PREFIXED! This becomes especially useful when responding to a message that already has text reply-quoted from one or more authors. Join the Group ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sirius provides a group definition facility that is perhaps the single most powerful capability in its arsenal. Using an extensive set of message-oriented functions and an expression formation language similar to many general programming languages, you may define up to twenty-six different message groups. A group definition may be used in one of two different ways. First, a message group may be used as a retrieval filter. That is, by virtue of a group definition being in force, the message area appears to only contain messages that match the group specification. This might be used for something as simple as only considering messages addressed specifically to you, for example. The second use of a group definition is in conjunction with group operations. Group operations mirror, in some respects, those functions available for single messages (such as copying to a file, deleting, moving elsewhere) but act on the entire group of messages as a unit. Some of these group operations are unavailable in 0.50, but will be there in 0.51. The built-in functions for use in group definitions include the following: Boolean (Message Flags): @Private @Xpress @Received @Sent @FileAttach @InTransit @Orphan @KillSent @Local @Hold @FileReq @AuditReq @ReceiptReq @UpdateReq Boolean (Other): @FromYou @ToYou @NoBody @ReadOnly Integer Functions: @DaysHere @DaysOld @FileSize @Zenith @HighMsg# @LowMsg# @Msg# @MsgCount @NetFrom @NetTo @NodeFrom @NodeTo FidoNews 4-28 Page 21 27 Jul 1987 String Functions (case insensitive): @From @To @Subject @Header @Body @Msg @Keyin Sirius provides the usual conditional operators (EQ, NE, GT, LT, GE, LE, AND, OR), as well as some additional ones: CO contains NC does not contain IN is contained in NI is not contained in A few simple examples of Sirius expressions will make clear the power intrinsic in their usage: 1. @ToYou OR @FromYou This expression will match only those messages that are to you or from you. 2. @ToYou AND @Private This expressions will match those messages addressed to you which are private. 3. @From CO 'arcmail' AND NOT @Local This expression would match your inbound ARCmail attach messages. 4. @DaysHere GT 7 AND @InTransit Suppose you are a hub and want to identify those messages that have been sitting waiting for delivery for more than a week (a possible indication of trouble)? This will do it. 5. @Msg CO 'Heinlein' A science fiction fanatic? This will find those messages related to your favorite author. As is the case elsewhere, the Sirius expression parser is built with the user in mind. When entering a Sirius group definition, you need only type enough to uniquely identify the token, and Sirius will fill in the rest automagically. Shifting into High Gear ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What has been mentioned before, but which might not have been truly appreciated until now, is the fact that Sirius provides a scripting language that allows you to do anything from a script that can be done online (including creating new messages, replying to old ones, etc...). The script language uses a Lisp-like syntax, and the verbs match exactly the menu FidoNews 4-28 Page 22 27 Jul 1987 commands which you use online, including a conditional and a while loop construct driven by the same types of expressions listed above. Sirius scripts may call other Sirius scripts in a nestable fashion, and I/O commands allow you easily design menus and other forms of interaction with the user at the keyboard. In combination with DOS parameterized batch files, your Sirius- driven system can almost run itself in some respects. As a simple example, consider the following script: (View (Xpertise (High)) View (Continuous) Area (NetMail) Group (Define (@ToYou AND NOT @Received)) 0 Next ! (While (@Msg# LE @HighMsg#)) Copy (Flat file ('NEWTOME.TXT')) Next ! (End) Quit (Bbs)) This simple script will append all of the new messages to you in your netmail area to the file NEWTOME.TXT in your current directory. For the new Sirius user who might want to dive right in writing Sirius scripts, there is a recording option that you may use to allow Sirius to write the script for you, simply by recording in the proper format operations that you enter interactively. Winding Down ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sirius is still a growing project. Many enhancements are planned and there is an active national Sirius echo being coordinated by 150/1. The Sirius author, Bob Klahn, is quite receptive to user suggestions for Sirius enhancements. There are subtleties and details to Sirius that were not appropriate for inclusion in this brief introduction. At the time of this writing, there does not exist a single, comprehensive, set of documentation for Sirius. This problem is being addressed by the Beta Test Group and hopefully will be remedied shortly. In the interim, there does exist a complete set of release notes for Sirius that cover major features, and these combined with the online help and sample scripts shipped with Sirius serve to offset the lack of formal documentation. The best bet for a new Sirius user is simply to dive in and try it (and to join the Sirius echo where experienced users will be able to lend some help). Bob's practice in the past has been to release new versions of Sirius on a regular schedule. Due to the major enhancements in version 0.50 (most dealing with the group definition facility), this latest version has been almost four months in development and testing, and we are sure you will find it worth the wait. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 23 27 Jul 1987 Mike Brisson The Augusta Forum 360/1 THE SPORTSNET ECHO CONFERENCE The SportsNet Echo Conference was started by the Augusta Forum in February of this year to give FidoNet boards a chance to talk coast to coast about their favorite sports topics. Almost everyone has at least a little interest in sports of one type or another, either as a participant or a spectator ... if you do, this conference is for you. SportsNet is NOT just a "my team's better than yours" conference! It is a place for discussions about WHY teams or players are better ... or worse. On SportsNet you have to be prepared to discuss your choices for the World Series, Super Bowl, or whatever ... someone's bound to differ with you. You'll find a place for participants, spectators, and media. The net has had discussions among bicycling racers ... and also has heard from a TV station director. Of course, the obvious sports (football, baseball, etc.) are discussed but there's also lively discussion about the lesser known ones (we've even gotten into snake handling and buffalo chip throwing)! What-ever the sport, we'll discuss it. SportsNet can be a learning place, too. If you don't know what an ERA (base-ball) or a blue line (hockey) are, you can learn those things there. Also, the conference has a weekly trivia quiz, possibly the first of its kind among echo conferences. Football fans will find a place, this fall, to test their prediction skills on NFL games, and possibly selected college games as well. If you're not already a part of SportsNet, this is your invitation to give us a try. We aren't one of those 100-message- a-day conferences that sometimes can overwhelm a newcomer ... we're still small enough for anyone to fit right in. We do have boards in New York, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Indiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as most of the Southeastern states. If you're interested in SportsNet, drop me a NetMail message. We'd like to have you join us! SportsNet Host: Mike Brisson Host Sysop: Ed Meloan Host System: Augusta Forum (360/1), N. Augusta, SC Host System Numbers: (803) 279-4124 or 279-5392 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 24 27 Jul 1987 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Glen Jackson Broadcast Software SEAdog/Fido 100/517 Where are we at Now ? We're still at it, going strong in the echos. We've added some more nodes. Colorado is a real busy state with the Broadcasters. If you know of any BBS's (in the net or not) that address themselves to the broadcasting Industry, drop us a line at 100/517. If you are in the industry, we welcome your call and feedback. We'll point you to the closest node involved in our echos. We're here to encourage communications among the industry. Here we are, a communuications group, and we rarely talk to each other across the country. Why would we want to? To exchange information. Information on what we use our computers at work for. How we use them. Programs that benefit all of us. How about issues that will be or do affect us? In such a highly competetive market, are we so afraid we'll help someone else grow??? We want to invite you to become a part of our growing echos. One of the echos is not limited to broadcasters only. It is a place that the public can talk with the people in the industry. The decision makers. People with the answers. If you'd like to become a part of our growing family in the Broadcast Echos, let us know. You don't need to run a broadcast- specific board to do so. We can be reached by routing a message to us at 100/517 - or calling direct at 314-928-2501. Broadcast Software Industries > Home of the Broadcast Echos < ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 25 27 Jul 1987 -- The Regular Irregular Column -- Dale Lovell 1:157/504.1 Things are going very well this past week. I've found some more programs that will run with SIMCGA (Ancient Art of War and a few others by Broderbund). In addition, I'm finally getting used to this new keyboard. My old XT had an original PC style layout, but with 10 function keys at the top and a cursor pad as well as a numeric keypad. The keyboard with the AT is one of the "new" 101 key style keyboards, 12 function keys and such. I'm still not entirely used to it, but things are a lot easier after a few weeks of use (and some customizing with SuperKey). Just goes to show how flexible the human mind can be when it has to adjust. -- Ventura Publisher Version 1.1 (Xerox, List $895.00) -- Some of you may recall how much I liked version 1.0 of Ventura Publisher when I got to try it out a few months back. Well Xerox has been busy working on an update, and it improves a product I wouldn't have thought could be improved. On the surface it still looks (and acts) the same, but once you get beyond the initial pull down screens it has a lot of new (yet familiar) functions and improvements. While it costs $100.00 to update to the new version of Ventura, it is money well spent (the list price is still the same, it didn't go up). Even the manual appears to be written better than the version 1.0 manual. I still thinks it's amusing that Xerox's DeskTop Publishing program supports PostScript printers better than Xerox's own printers. PostScript users will greatly appreciate some of the new features in 1.1. The font names now match the names you're used to calling them, and Ventura lists all of the Adobe supported fonts. If you have something like the QMS PS800+ (or an Allied Linotronic typesetter), you won't have to do anything to make Ventura know about your additional fonts. Instead of the box selections of fonts and sizes in 1.0, you now see something that resembles the box you're used to using to select files (only they aren't files, they're several dozen fonts). You are also free to enter the point size of the font, no limitations under PostScript (other than those your printer has built into it). If you're using download fonts to your PostScript device, it's very easy to tell Ventura about them. Once told, it will download the fonts you're using automatically. While Ventura still doesn't take full advantage of PostScript's powerful capabilities, it brings it up a step from the previous version (and while I'm not sure, I think it beats PageMaker's PostScript support). In version 1.0 there were some wonderful features when bringing in a short text file, or some form of art. Ventura 1.1 increases it's list of generally useful features by being able to make these frames follow a specific part of the main text around. Xerox calls this "anchoring" a frame to text and may be reason enough for many people to spend the $100 on the upgrade. The reasoning behind anchoring a picture to text is that pictures are meant to go along with the text. An example would be a business FidoNews 4-28 Page 26 27 Jul 1987 report with several graphs, each graph goes along with a specific part of the report. You certainly wouldn't want the employee attendance graph to be above the section of the report dealing with quarterly sales, would you? Yet this is exactly what could happen if you added a few paragraphs of text or added the company logo to the top of the report. Ventura 1.1 puts an end to having to manually readjust every graphics (or text) frame when you change an earlier part of the publication. The frame will follow the text around every time you make a change and Ventura allows you to anchor frames to text so that the frame will appear above, below or on the same page as the text it accompanies. I can see this having a large impact on the educational community as thesis papers (especially in the sciences, maybe even the arts as I think about it) won't have to be such monumental efforts. Including a relevant graph in the text of the paper becomes trivial, and it will always show up where it belongs. One of the nicer additions to me personally is the support for Macintosh MacPaint and PICT files. The MacPaint file support is nice because I have several of these already on my system. You may know them better as READMAC pictures. All of these can be brought right into Ventura. I no longer need to find a program to convert them into PC Paintbrush or GEM Paint files. Sysops may see a renewed interest in their READMAC file area as people start looking around for digitized pictures to put into their work. I know I've spent quite a bit of time the past week looking around several of the local boards and downloading such files. There are a few disappointments in Ventura 1.1. In the front of the manual there is an errata sheet. While support for Hewlett-Packard DDL printers and Windows clipboard line art were not able to be included in this release of Ventura. It seems HP still hasn't finalized the specification for DDL (not to mention not shipping any printers that use DDL) and until the specification in finished and the printers shipped, Ventura won't support it. The Windows clipboard line art is supposedly missing because Xerox has been unable to obtain the complete specifications on the metafile format. Support for both of these items is promised however, and Xerox gives you a number to call if you need support for DDL or Windows clipboard line art. As soon as it is ready, they'll send it out to you. Overall I am still impressed with Ventura Publisher. Version 1.1 includes enough new items (as opposed to bug fixes, which weren't to many from what I hear) to make it a solid improvement over version 1.0. The new features only add to an excellent product. I may be prejudiced, but I think this product is an easy winner over PageMaker. Most of the people in the LASERPUB echomail conference also seem to think the same way. The only complaint I can recall on Ventura was due to someone not knowing how to do something (as opposed to not being able to do something). If you're going to have to buy a page composition package in the near future, do yourself a favor and go find a dealer who really knows how to use Ventura and have him give you a demonstration. FidoNews 4-28 Page 27 27 Jul 1987 -- WordPerfect 4.2 (WordPerfect Corp., list price $495.00) -- I'll admit it, I've been using WordPerfect for the past few weeks and haven't admitted it until now. I conned my boss into buying it for me at work and have been getting used to it before I "reviewed" it. I didn't want to say anything right away because it takes me awhile to become accustomed to a new word processor. I didn't want to make the mistake of saying it's a poor product just because I hit control-K Q to exit (Wordstar style commands) when it wants F7 Y Y (WordPerfect). I must admit that I hated it when I was still becoming accustomed to it, but am now a WordPerfect convert and am seriously considering buying a copy for home as well. After getting used to how the function keys work (WordPerfect uses all 40 combinations on the function keys; alone, alt-key, ctrl-key, and shift-key) it is a remarkably easy word processor to use. My boss also purchased the WordPerfect Library, although I won't start going over it until next week. One of the first things I noticed about WordPerfect is that it is fast. Supposedly this is because WordPerfect is written completely in assembler while many other word processors, Microsoft Word included, are written in a mix of C and assembler. I don't know if this is actually true, but I do know that it is a lot quicker than Word. While it doesn't do some of Word's nice displays, in many cases it's easier to use WordPerfect than Microsoft Word. In Word I could only spell check the entire document and that could take a long time (go to the library, tell it I want to do a spell check, etc.). WordPerfect let's me check either a word, page or entire document. I've become very accustomed to hitting Ctrl-F2 1 and checking the word I just entered. While it doesn't have Word's style sheets, it does have built in macros; either the Alt-key variety or as an eight character name. The only thing it is sadly missing is an editor for the macros (they aren't stored in a straight ASCII format like Superkey's macros). In order to get a macro editor you must purchase the WordPerfect library. The macros aren't hard to learn, and in many cases are much more flexible than Word's style sheets. One of the first things I did when I started playing with it's macros was create one for the start of these columns and another with the complete signature. I used a variety of Superkey macros to do this in Word and while they were very similar, I decided to learn how to do it in WordPerfect. If you aren't familiar with keyboard macros, it's basically a way of turning several keystrokes into one (although that's a weak comparison, it's the best I can do for now). Overall I've been very impressed with it. While I haven't really gone into it very deeply, bear with me over the next few weeks while I keep learning more about it. Right now I can tell that it's going to become my word processor of choice (at least until I come across something I like better). I just wish I been using it when all I had was a 4.77 mhz XT, the difference in speed would have been very nice. If you're looking around for a new word processor, I would definitely say try out WordPerfect. FidoNews 4-28 Page 28 27 Jul 1987 It is fast, powerful, and fairly easy to use. My biggest advice is to give yourself a chance to get used to it before you decide against it. I'll still probably use Word when I'm looking for a variety of fonts (especially if I ever get a laser printer) since Word handles different fonts better than WordPerfect, but for all my other work I'll be using WordPerfect. -- Winding Down... -- I've found a book that may help many of you as you break away from BASIC into Pascal or C. It's called "Puzzled Programmers" by Michael Wiesenberg (Microsoft Press $12.95). It's a little different as it has several short stories accompanying each problem (of which there's fifteen) and while the problem doesn't actually relate to the story, they make for cute reading. Also included are hints to every problem as well as the solution. The solutions are presented in BASIC, Pascal and C. One of the things Wiesenberg was trying to accomplish was to aid those learning a new language. All three solutions to each problem use the same basic algorithm, so you can examine the solution in the language you already know and compare it to the one you are trying to learn. This is supposed to help you see how they are similar, and how to take advantage of the special techniques or principles of the different languages (like being able to initialize several variables at the start of a loop in C). Since I already know all three of the languages used, I wasn't able to really learn anything with this book, but I can see how it might help someone learn about a new language. The problems are all mathematical problems, several of which could be solved without the aid of a computer. The hints rarely tell you how to write a program, they merely guide you along the way by helping you figure out how to solve a problem. I really support this method of learning. I've seen too many Computer Science or MIS people graduate with honors and yet have no idea on how to solve problems. To many courses on computers only deal with syntax and modifying an existing program, often given to the students in a lecture or text, to do something slightly different. To much of programming is determining HOW to do something to ignore teaching the students how to solve problems (or as I call it, thinking...but I'm fairly sarcastic in my attitudes these days). Books like this can help out those of you trying to learn how to program more than many of the other books I've recommended in this column. Most of the books I recommend already assume you can determine the steps necessary to accomplish a task, I think "Puzzled Programmers" will help teach you this necessary skill. As I look over this paragraph I realize that I starting to climb up on my soapbox again, so I'm going to wind up by giving high marks to MIchael Wiesenberg on this excellent book. As always down below you'll find my US mail address, uucp address and FidoNet address. If you're sending me mail through FidoNet, please have your sysop route it through 157/1 (or 157/0) as I am a private node. I'd like to thank any of you I missed answering. While I try to answer every message (electronic or FidoNews 4-28 Page 29 27 Jul 1987 otherwise) I receive, I'm not the most organized person and I'm fairly certain I missed a few somewhere. I'm still waiting to hear from the person using the pseudonym "Ender Wiggin," unless you're worried about Jane eavesdropping? (for an understanding of this read "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card). I'd like to thank you for the package you sent, although I don't have much use for it now. Hope to see all of you at FidoCon. Dale Lovell 3266 Vezber Drive Seven Hills, OH 44131 FidoNet 1:157/504.1 uucp: decvax\ >!cwruecmp!hal\ cbosgd/ \ >!ncoast ames\ / talcott \ / >!necntc/ harvard / sri-nic/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 30 27 Jul 1987 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 1 Aug 1987 Third Annual BBS Picnic in Edison, NJ. Please register before July 10th. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for 12 and under, free for 5 and under. Contact John Kelley at 107/331 for details. 20 Aug 1987 Start of the Fourth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, VA. Contact Brian Hughes at 109/634 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see you there! 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.51 EDITNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 Fido 11w LISTGEN 05.25.86 ARCmail 1.00* Opus 1.00* Prune 1.40 EchoMail 1.31 SEAdog 4.00 TestList 8.3 FastEcho 2.00 TBBS 2.0M XlatList 2.81 Renum 3.30 * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list as current as possible 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 4-28 Page 31 27 Jul 1987 OFFICIAL REGISTRATION FORM FOURTH INTERNATIONAL FIDONET CONFERENCE RADISSON MARK PLAZA HOTEL ALEXANDRIA, VA. AUGUST 20 - 23, 1987 Name _________________________________ Date _____________ Address ______________________________ City & State _________________________ Phone (Voice) ________________________ Net/Node Number ______________________ Phone (Data) _________________________ Number in Your Party _________________ Staying at the Radisson? _____________ Number of Rooms? _____________________ Arrival Date? ________________________ Departure Date? ______________________ Registration Fees: How Many Total Full Conference $60.00 each ________ $________ Late registration $10.00 each ________ $________ (after Aug. 1) Friday Night Banquet $30.00 each ________ $________ Saturday Luncheon $16.50 each ________ $________ Total Amount Included (Registration and Meals) $________ IFNA MEMBERS ONLY: How many in your party will be attending the Sunday morning Board of Directors meeting? ________ Send your registration form and a check or money order to: Fourth International FidoNet Conference 212 E. Capitol St., Washington, D.C. 20003 Attn: Brian H. Hughes -- voice: (202) 543-4200 This registration form does not include hotel accomodations. If you wish to stay at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel, please contact them directly and mention you are with the FidoNet Conference. Conference room rates are $80/night for single or double occupancy, and $20/night for an extra cot. Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel 5000 Seminary Rd., Alexandria, Va. 22311 1-800-228-9822 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-28 Page 32 27 Jul 1987 Bob Morris 141/333 Chairman, Elections and Nominations Committee The next two pages are your Official ballot for the Election of the IFNA Board of Directors. The following are the few rules which must prevail in this election: 1. You must send a legible copy of this ballot to the address listed on the ballot. It must be signed and bear your net/node number. 2. You may vote for any one person in your region for the position of Regional Director. This vote is to be cast in the LEFT column of the ballot. 3. You may vote for any eleven people in any regions for the position of Director at Large. These votes are to be cast in the RIGHT column of the ballot. 4. Voting will continue until the end of registration at the Conference in August. The results will be read during the opening of the business meeting on the first day of the conference. 5. Write-in Votes will be accepted and are requested during this election. FidoNews 4-28 Page 33 27 Jul 1987 IFNA Board Of Directors Ballot Regional At Large Region 10: Steve Jordan _________ ________ Region 11: Ryugen Fisher _________ ________ Theodore Polczynski _________ ________ Region 12: Region 13: Don Daniels _________ ________ John Penberthy _________ ________ Thom Henderson _________ ________ Gee Wong _________ ________ Brian Hughes _________ ________ Region 14: Ben Baker _________ ________ Ken Kaplan _________ ________ Brad Hicks _________ ________ Region 15: David Dodell _________ ________ Larry Wall _________ ________ Region 16: Bob Hartman _________ ________ Hal Duprie _________ ________ Region 17: Rob Barker _________ ________ Bob Swift _________ ________ Region 18: Wes Cowley _________ ________ FidoNews 4-28 Page 34 27 Jul 1987 Region 19: Mark Grennan _________ ________ Wynn Wagner _________ ________ Region 2: Henk Wevers _________ ________ Write-in candidates: ___________________ _________ ________ ___________________ _________ ________ Name ______________________________ Net/Node ___________ Signature______________________________ Date ___________ Please complete this and mail it to: Robert Morris IFNA Elections Committee 210 Church Street West Haven, Ct. 06516 or bring it with you when you come to the conference in August. These ballots will be counted by myself since with 200 members the charges for a CPA would be very high. Hard copies will be made available to anyone wishing to insure that their vote was included. Thank You Bob Morris Elections and Nominations Committee -----------------------------------------------------------------