Volume 7, Number 10 5 March 1990 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | FidoNet (r) | | \ \\ | | International BBS Network | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact Fido Software. FidoNews is published weekly by the System Operators of the FidoNet (r) International BBS Network. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or authorized agents of the authors. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. 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. 1:1/1 is a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are used with permission. Opinions expressed in FidoNews articles are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of Fido Software. Most articles are unsolicited. Our policy is to publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Commercial Advertisement Echo ............................ 1 SCSI-ONE Echo Started .................................... 7 Telegard Does ECHO's ..................................... 8 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 10 A View from the Bridge ................................... 10 Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 11 3. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 13 Latest Software Versions ................................. 13 4. NOTICES .................................................. 16 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 16 FidoNews 7-10 Page 1 5 Mar 1990 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Commercial Advertisement Echo ----------------------------- For months now I have deliberated about doing this and know I will probably get all kinds of stones thrown at me but I have just about had it with: We do not allow commercial advertisement in this echo, or we do not want anyone to make a profit from this echo. It is not that I do not disagree with all of that it is just that I am sick and tired of all the whinney babies an how much it cost to send messages around the world. Well guys and gals who do you all think you are kidding. When we (those of us who really do this for FUN) want something the cost is not the Object. Nor is it the hold back. Well I think it is about time an echo where commercial advertisement can take place. A place where sysops can post their BBS advertisement's, or if they have something for sale that does not belong in For-Sale, or Modem or Hd or what ever. A place where If I want to advertise my wares or my programs or my services I can do so. So here is what I have done. I have established an echo area called ADVERT. There is one catch, this echo is not FREE. It will never be placed on a backbone, nor will it ever be made available for free distribution. There will be one point of distribution, and one point for delivery. Connection to this echo will cost $1.00 per month. Payable in advance of connection, and connection will only be made upon receipt of payment and validation of correct node number. I will also not make any out going distribution calls, all calls must orginate from the receiving node. The echo areas may be set up as READ ONLY or Sysops May allow Users to Enter Messages. Sysops may establish their own fee for entering messages into the echo area, and will be responsible for content. As I said at the start I am tired of hearing you can't so I am now giving all of you out there who have heard these words and even violated the policy of entering such messages now You have a place to do just that. But rememeber I warned you nothing we do any more is free. I have established a Flat Rate of $10.00 per message and this may be used as a guideline. Echo Area Guidelines are as follows: 1. Only commercial advertisements should be entered. Advertisements of personal nature's may be entered at local sysops discretion. FidoNews 7-10 Page 2 5 Mar 1990 2. Messages should contain only standard american characters, no upper ascii should be used. 3. Messages will remain posted on individual systems for a minimu of 30 days or deleted as often as necessary by the sysop. 4. Individual BBS will be responsible for monitoring messages entered by users, and so long as messages are not offensive or do not attack any person place or thing there will be no ground for removal from the echo. 5. Sysops may pay for as many months of receipt in advance as they would like, and will receive a full refund for any full unused months if they request connection termination. Ok there you have it. A way and a means to advertise your stuff with no hassles and a promise you will not be told you cannot advertise that here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Payment may be sent to: C_Tech's Computer Services 13 Osage Drive Los Lunas, NM 87031 Connection Notification will be made via Echo Mail distribution within 48 hours of receipt. Come and get it, you have been wanting it. Now you have it..... ================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 3 5 Mar 1990 * * * A N N O U N C E M E N T * * * Third Annual Poor Man's FidoCon and Lake Party (in TEXAS) --------------------------------------------------------- All SYSOPS and their family, pets, and assorted accoutrements are cordially invited to attend this fine three-day weekend. SPONSOR: Net 106 of Houston, Texas and other friends of our Net. DATES: April 20, 21, 22. [ The Friday, Saturday, and Sunday following EASTER. ] PLACE: Big Creek Park Pavillion (and campsites) on Lake Sommerville in Burleson County, Texas. EVENTS: Volleyball; swimming; boating; fishing; other water sports; chattin'; and eatin'. SATURDAY PICNIC: pot-luck, do-it-your-way communal feast. There may be a special treat in-addition to the regular fare. Come and try it! BIKE RIDE: Saturday morning Early Bird Tour and Ride through the Deer Meadow. CAMPING: Six campsites are with the Pavillion. There are a good number adjacent to the Pavillion Point. Well-lit,clean, maintained restrooms are nearby. Water is also available; but no electricity at the Pavillion. Here are DIRECTIONS to the Region 19 Picnic: From OKC: Take IH35 thru Dallas or Ft. Worth to WACO. In Waco,take Hwy 77 to CAMERON. Go left on TX 36 to CALDWELL. About 10 miles south of Caldwell on TX36 is LYONS. On the north edge of Lyons turn right onto FM 60. You should see a sign for Big Creek Park. Its about 6 - 8 miles from Lyons. Turn left onto the road to the park. From Austin: Take US 290 East approx. 89 miles to BRENHAM. At the west FidoNews 7-10 Page 4 5 Mar 1990 edge of Brenham, turn left onto TX36 and go north approx. 20 miles thru the town of SOMMERVILLE to LYONS. Turn left at the second road which should be FM 60. From Dallas: Follow same directions as for OKC. From Ft. Worth: Follow same directions as for OKC. From Arkansas: Take IH30 west to DALLAS and then take IH35 (east) south and follow the OKC directions. From Louisiana: Take IH10 to HOUSTON. Take 'Loop 610 North' around the edge of the inner city. You'll cross US 59 and then IH45. Keep going. Take US 290 towards Austin. It's 73 miles to BRENHAM. Follow the bypass around town. It becomes TX36. Do not turn to follow US 290 to Austin. Stay headed North. Approx. 18 miles northeast, you'll pass thru the town of SOMMERVILLE. There is one motel here. Continue thru town and over the rise to the little crossroads berg of LYONS. There are two places you can turn left. Take the second one. This should be FM 60. Approx. 8 miles to Big Creek Park. From San Antonio: Take IH35 north all the way to AUSTIN. At the north edge of Austin, turn right onto US 290. Follow the Austin directons. You can cut across on TX 21 at PAIGE. Go to CALDWELL. Turn south on TX 36. About 10 miles you'll reach LYONS. At the very edge of Lyons you should turn right on FM 60. Approx. 8 miles to the Park which will be on your right. From El Paso: Take IH 10 to JUNCTION. About 22 miles east of Junction take US 290. Follow US 290 north thru AUSTIN. You'll turn right to the east toward HOUSTON. Follow the Austin directions. From All Directions - At Big Creek Park ======================================= FidoNews 7-10 Page 5 5 Mar 1990 After you enter Big Creek Park, turn right at the sign directing you to the campground. Tell the gate attendant that you are with the Houston Bird/\Dog Society. Follow the campground road staying to the left at every fork until you reach the Pavillion. DETAILS: LYONS to Big Creek Park turnoff is 3.8 miles. Gate is 3.3 miles further. Campground is 0.1 mile from Gate. Restrooms to left just beyond gate. 0.3 mile from Gate is first fork. Stay LEFT. 0.1 mile to next fork. Stay LEFT. To right are electric campsites. Big Rest Rooms at this fork. Also dumpster. 0.2 mile to Pavillion Point. Open area. MARINA (one (1) mile from Gate. Deer Meadow. Brand new building with groceries and ice and fishing pier. ACCOMODATIONS: ============== AT BIG CREEK PARK: Ample campsites. $8 with water. $10 with electricity and water. In nearby locations for those not camping : AT MARINAS: Big Creek Marina: 6 cabins with icebox and stove. No tv. high wood steps. Telephone across road. 3 cabins with _two_ bedrooms and 3 cabins with _one_ bedroom. Reservations must be for TWO nights whether you stay or not! No credit cards. $5.00 key deposit. Advance deposit of $25.00. TELEPHONE: 1-409-596-1616 2 - bedroom unit $40.00 per night. 1 - bedroom unit $35.00 per night. OverLook Park Marina: 6 blue and white cabins. Single rooms. No steps. Same owners, same conditions. TELEPHONE: 1-409-289-2651 FidoNews 7-10 Page 6 5 Mar 1990 1 - room unit $45.00 per night. SCREEN SHELTERS: $15.00 per night. CALDWELL: 13.7 miles from LYONS. Surry Inn; Varsity Motel, and Texan motel (low dive). Two resturants next door to Surry Inn. Wal-Mart next to Varsity. Nice grocery stores here! STOCK UP!!! Interesting METAL SCULPTURE STUDIO on BASTROP hwy. Check it out. Neat! BRENHAM: 19.5 miles from LYONS. Preference Inn and (?) Motel - across from McDonalds on Hwy. 290. Coach Lite Motel (2 sites) is 1.2 west of Brenham on hwy 290 toward AUSTIN (the Austin folk may want to stay here!). Judge's resturant, sunday buffet, bowling alley, etc.. SOMMERVILLE: 3.5 miles from LYONS. One motel on southside of town. No grocery stores! Several drive-in markets. FOUR places to eat. 1) D's Diner - 24 hrs. just relocated into larger, newer, formerly vacant resturant. 2) Schopp's (?) local greasy spoon in center of town. 3) COUNTRY INN -* best food* !!! Steaks, club sandwiches, and baked potatos very popular. Own meat.. hudge pieces! 4) Dairy Queen. Heritage Museum. Nature Museum at Corp of Engineers Headquarters. Primarily Railroad with Loading Pens for _cattle_. Sommerville Motel - 1-409-596-1000 BRYNA/COLLEGE STATION: Approx. 30 miles east on Tx 60. Many places here, including a Motel Six. ( Submitted by Net 106, via Justin Marquez, 1:106/100 ) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 7 5 Mar 1990 By Bill Weinel 1:151/121.0 SCSI-ONE Echo for SCSI Discussions There has been a great deal of discussion involving SCSI topics lately in HDCONF. Consequently, a need was seen for a dedicated area devoted to discussion on the SCSI-1 standard and the proposed SCSI-2 standard, as well as the handful of new PC SCSI adaptors on the market today. SCSI-ONE was formed for just this reason. SCSI-ONE is moderated by Jeff Lengel (the developer of the Scsi System One PC SCSI adaptor) of 1:151/121.10 and may be used as a forum for discussion by anyone interested in SCSI applications, host systems, hardware, and theory. SCSI-ONE is available on the Z1 backbone and should be available through your local REC. Should you encounter problems getting connected to SCSI-ONE, contact me via netmail at 1:151/121.0 to arrange a feed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 8 5 Mar 1990 Evan S. Dictor Fido 1:369/14 Telegard Does ECHO's! Telegard, a BBS already known for it's flexibility and powerful security, now adds ECHOMail support to it's list of features. Adding an ECHO area to a Telegard BBS is as easy as adding any other message area -- and that's EASY!! The BBS just prompts you for the directory where the ECHO is stored, and then with the help of a small, quick utility called TGMAIL, ECHOMail can be easily Tossed and Scanned in regular events controlled by the mailer being used. This new feature has already been tested with D'Bridge and FrontDoor, and other mailers will be tested shortly. TGMAIL not only Tosses messages into Telegard, but it colorizes them using Telegard colors to give a new 'flavor' to reading ECHO's. The program colors text, quoted text, origin lines and tear lines all in different colors (all configurable by the SysOp) to make the messages easier to read. For a long time now Telegard has been the choice for closed BBS's due to it's strong security. What many people don't know is that ALL of the security features are optional. The flexibility of Telegard's menu system makes it perfect for any environment. If your users tend to like a PCBoard type of menus, Telegard can be easily customized to duplicate EXACTLY every command in virtually any BBS software available. The downside of this is that by emulating another BBS, you would have to DISCARD many of Telegard's features! With most BBS's you can have a menu option to send feedback to the SysOp. Telegard has this too. However, why limit it to just that? Why not a Feedback Menu which allows the user to send mail to either the SysOp or any Co-SysOps just by entering the choice off of an easy to follow, 100% custom menu. Do you like ANSI Colors and Animation? I do. Telegard's menu and logon systems incorporate a full ANSI Sub-Sytem which allows not only different ANSI's to be displayed based on User's Access Level, but also by day of week and even 10 full randomly displayed ANSI's for any or all of those. That means that without even accounting for the Users Access Level, you can create up to 70 ANSI's for any screen including Menus, Welcome Screens, Bulletins ... the list is endless. I've seen Telegard SysOps run out of disk space from making ANIS's as opposed to Uploads. However this, like everything in Telegard, is fully optional and the SysOp can use as much or little of it as he wants. The authors of Telegard do not impose there features on SysOps, they offer them. FidoNews 7-10 Page 9 5 Mar 1990 Why do I come here and sing the praises of Telegard? I use it. If it wasn't exactly what I wanted or couldn't do something I needed and there was something else that did, I would switch. However, that hasn't happened. Every time I have come up with a suggestion for Telegard, I have sent it to the authors and nine times out of ten it's in the next release. Now I'm a Beta Site for the software. Sure, I get errors. You don't! That's why I get the errors. The authors of Telegard do not lose touch with the users of the software. Bugs are found in the Beta versions and usually fixed within the next two days. There are over 100 Beta Sites nationwide pushing every part of the software to it's limits and every single bug is vanquished prior to any Standard release coming out. And this Standard version is FREE to all! If you would like to see a list of Telegard BBS's in your area, there is a FREQable file on my BBS which you can get with the magic name of TELELIST. Go ahead, call one. You'll be glad you did! New Pompeii BBS (305) 721-9690 FIDO 1:369/14 1200-9600 v32 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 10 5 Mar 1990 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= A View from the Bridge "Captain's Log, Stardate 9003.03" Howdy! Well, it looks like Andy's back on CBS. Why am I not surprised? Geez, what a pain this week was! I wanted to buy a 32 bit ram board for my Hauppauge 386 XT replacement motherboard and put 2 meg on it. Simple, no? Cost me about $500, right? Wrong. First of all, I wanted to get this thing installed before the weekend pushed my shipping back to monday or later, so I paid the additional $20 to get the card UPS 'red' (and the same for the memory. I wasn't about to pay THEIR prices for chips!), but I didn't complain. Anyway, I get the board, plug it in, but it only works intermittantly. "What's wrong?" I asks meself, and gets on the horn to Hauppauge (day long distance rates!) What kind of power supply you got, they ask. 130 watt, I answer. Oh, you have to have a minimum of 150 watts to run that card, they says. Great. After spending all that extra money to get the stuff 'next day', I still have to buy a $200 power supply! Well, no time to get cheap. I buy a 200 watt 'turbo-cool 200' from PC Power and Cooling. Yes, I get it shipped red, again. Finally, I get my power supply installed, the memory board is running, and I think, gee, what a great time to install that SEAgate 4096 hard drive. I already have the machine apart... Well, 36 hours later I was back up and had recovered my D: drive. Needless to say, I was not happy. Still, I learned my lesson again, the same one I've learned all my life... Don't rush, and get it right! 'Till next time... Ciao for now! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 11 5 Mar 1990 Henry Clark 124/6120 The Death of Shareware and Other Good News -- "Shareware enters mid-life crisis." I read these paragraphs with somewhat backhanded interest; I always do when 'they' mention anything about Procomm, but that's another story. Ever hear of FONDIR ? That's my particular excursion into the MYTH AND REALITY of Shareware. Now sure, you say, the user interface was messed up. What with all the GUI wars about to hit, that's going to become the de facto reason for failure in the software industry. I think the real reason is that Shareware is dead. None too soon. Why? The banner reads Militantly Public Domain. It's Please-Run-Me-Ware, written for the fun of it, shared out of pride, and unencumbered by all the license agreement nonsense that runs the gamut from 'Please' to 'Will destroy your FAT after 3 executions'. What this really means is the illusion is gone. No more deception. Thank the gods. The Big Mistake -- A huge and terrible MISTAKE has been released upon all the sysops in the world. What is it ? It's the "ARCHIVE COMMENT". It's immoral and probably illegal. It's a downright nuisance. It might not be so bad if it was treated like a PATH; you could track a program back to it's source. Will this ever happen ? Silly me. For this to end, Mr. Katz has to release a NEW HOT compression method and the program that implements that compression method will have NO ARCHIVE COMMENT facility. Now wouldn't that be special. Until then, it's pkzip -z filename < return where return is a file with a CRLF sequence in it. This is not what it is. Big Blue Subterfuge -- Have you heard the words brother : "COOPERATIVE PROCESSING". This is where a certain mainframe database product and an OS2 based presentation manager will allow you all the RDBMS productivity you need. Well here's the scoop. It's called 'Mega Block Mode'. FidoNews 7-10 Page 12 5 Mar 1990 Hurt by repeated bashing about the inefficiencies of regular old Block Mode, Big Blue has gone one better with Mega Block Mode. Your OS2 is not required to do the background communications, ( which it may do only slightly worse than a Desqview task ), it's the protected mode feature which allows you to run huge programs that wouldn't fit in 640k. Huge programs and memory you will need to manipulate the 'Mega Block'. "Cooperative processing" ( better understood as 'weakest link syndrome' ) is simply a less interactive mode of data access. You spend hours updating up the data and then send the whole thing back, where it's rejected because of a missing parameter on line 609. Honey Learns MSGED -- Oh my god. Cooperate this... ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 13 5 Mar 1990 ================================================================= LATEST VERSIONS ================================================================= Latest Software Versions MS-DOS Systems -------------- Bulletin Board Software Name Version Name Version Name Version Fido 12q+ QuickBBS 2.62* TBBS 2.1 Lynx 1.30 RBBS 17.2B TComm/TCommNet 3.4 Kitten 2.16 RBBSmail 17.2 TPBoard 6.0 Opus 1.03c+ RemoteAccess 0.01* Wildcat! 2.10* Phoenix 1.3 TAG 2.5d1* Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version BinkleyTerm 2.30 EditNL 4.00 ARC 6.02 D'Bridge 1.30* MakeNL 2.20 ARCA06 2.20* Dutchie 2.90C ParseList 1.30 ARCmail 2.0 FrontDoor 1.99b* Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 PRENM 1.47 SysNL 3.01* EMM 2.02 SEAdog 4.51b XlatList 2.90 Gmail 2.05* XlaxDiff 2.32 GROUP 2.16 XlaxNode 2.32 GUS 1.30* LHARC 1.13 MSG 4.0 MSGED 1.99 PK[UN]ZIP 1.02* QM 1.0 QSORT 4.03 StarLink 1.01 TagMail 2.20* TCOMMail 2.2 TMail 1.12 TPBNetEd 3.2 TosScan 1.00* UFGATE 1.03 XRS 3.10 ZmailQ 1.10* Macintosh --------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities FidoNews 7-10 Page 14 5 Mar 1990 Name Version Name Version Name Version Red Ryder Host v2.1b4 Tabby 2.1 MacArc 0.04 Mansion 7.15 Copernicus 1.0d* ArcMac 1.3 WWIV (Mac) 3.0 StuffIt 1.51 TImport 1.331 TExport 1.32 Timestamp 1.6 Tset 1.3 Import 2.52 Export 2.54 Sundial 2.1 UNZIP 1.01* Amiga ----- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Paragon 2.00+* BinkleyTerm 1.00 AmigArc 0.23 TrapDoor 1.11 booz 1.01 WelMat 0.35* ConfMail 1.10 ChameleonEdit 0.10 Lharc 1.10* oMMM 1.43b* ParseLst 1.30 PkAX 1.00 PK[UN]ZIP 1.01* RMB 1.30 UNzip 0.86 Zoo 2.00 Atari ST -------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailer Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version FIDOdoor/ST 1.5c* BinkleyTerm 1.03g3 ConfMail 1.00 Pandora BBS 2.41c The BOX 1.20 ParseList 1.30 QuickBBS/ST 0.40 ARC 6.02* GS Point 0.61 LHARC 0.51 PKUNZIP 1.10 MSGED 1.96S SRENUM 6.2 Trenum 0.10 OMMM 1.40 FidoNews 7-10 Page 15 5 Mar 1990 + Netmail capable (does not require additional mailer software) * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-10 Page 16 5 Mar 1990 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 17 Mar 1990 Release date for Opus v1.10 5 Jun 1990 David Dodell's 33rd Birthday 12 Jun 1990 Fifth anniversary of FidoNet's switch to multiple nets. 27 Jul 1990 The beginning of the REGION 17 Convention at Menucha Resort in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. For details contact Ken Zwaschka, 1:105/54. 1 Aug 1990 Start of FidoCon '90. Contact Bill Vanglahn at 1:1/90 for details. 5 Oct 1990 21st Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" 14 Nov 1990 Marco Maccaferri's 21rd Birthday. Send greetings to him at 2:332/16.0 1 Jan 1991 Implementation of 7% Goods and Services Tax in Canada. Contact Joe Lindstrom at 1:134/55 for a more colorful description. 16 Feb 1991 Fifth anniversary of the introduction of Echomail, by Jeff Rush. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. -----------------------------------------------------------------