FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:26           Page 1

        Volume 2, Number 19                             24 June 1985
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        |                                            /  \          |
        |    - FidoNews -                           /|oo \         |
        |                                          (_|  /_)        |
        |  Fido and FidoNet                         _`@/_ \    _   |
        |    Users  Group                          |     | \   \\  |
        |     Newsletter                           | (*) |  \   )) |
        |                             ______       |__U__| /  \//  |
        |                            / FIDO \       _//|| _\   /   |
        |                           (________)     (_/(_|(____/    |
        |                                                (jm)      |
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        Publisher:              Fido 107/375
        Chief Procrastinator:   Thom Henderson

        Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 107/375.  You 
        are  encouraged  to  submit  articles  for  publication   in 
        Fidonews.  Article submission standards are contained in the 
        file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 107/375.  

        Disclaimer or don't-blame-us:

        The  contents  of  the  articles  contained here are not our 
        responsibility,  nor do  we  necessarily  agree  with  them; 
        everything here is subject to debate.  We publish EVERYTHING 
        received.  





                        The Answer to Copy Protection

        I've already spoken in defense of copy protection.  I don't 
        like it, but I can see why they do it.  The big question is, 
        what else can be done?

        When radio was first invented it was envisioned as 
        "telephone without the wires".  It was a neat idea.  It 
        could be alot of fun for alot of people.  It could even be 
        useful in certain cases.  But there aren't too many ways it 
        can compete with the more usual sort of telephone.

        Then David Sarnoff got a bright idea.  He came up with 
        broadcasting.  This is more revolutionary than it sounds.  
        His idea was to transmit entertainment, news, whatever 
        people wanted to listen to.  All the expensive equipment 
        would be at his end, so anyone could listen even if they 
        didn't have much to spend.

        The big thing is, he put in all the money and all the work, 
        and GAVE it away!  Anybody who wanted to was more than 
        welcome to listen in.  The trick, of course, is that he 
        figured out how to make money some other way.







FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:28           Page 2


        I think that software marketing is in that kind of a 
        position today.  People are still thinking of marketing 
        software in terms of the mainframe market, and it just isn't 
        working very well.  It's just too easy to make pirate 
        copies, and there are simply too many small fish to go 
        after.

        The traditional answer is copy protection, but nobody likes 
        it, and it doesn't even work.  People seem able to figure 
        out how to bust copy protection schemes almost as fast as 
        they can be devised.  Even the proposed "key" system isn't 
        an answer.  How is a physical key any different from a key 
        sector on a disk?

        The one original answer I have heard is the Freeware 
        approach.  It has the virtue of being revolutionary, and it 
        solves many of the inherent problems of copy protection.  By 
        taking the approach that "if you don't pay, then you would 
        have pirated it anyway, so take it!" it does manage to make 
        piracy impossible, but few people ever seem to get around to 
        paying at all.

        What we need is for someone to have a flash of insight, and 
        figure out another way to make money by writing good 
        software.  We need some means whereby the more people who 
        use a program the more money the author makes, but not by 
        charging for the software.  Regretfully, I have not had that 
        sort of stroke of genius, and I tend to doubt I ever will.  
        I'd thought of advertising, but I can't quite handle the 
        image of a "Big Mac" ad popping up whenever I run my 
        compiler.

        In closing, I will state publicly something I've said many 
        times in private:

            "There is some solution to software piracy, and it isn't 
             copy protection."


























FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:29           Page 3

        ============================================================
                                  NEWS
        ============================================================
        I am unhappy, is anyone else out there unhappy?  I am talking 
        about the "improved" fido with nets/nodes/regions/hosts, etc.  
        I was under the impression that fido was running very smoothly 
        before the change (Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people 
        spent alot of time coordinating the whole shebang and for that 
        I am very thankful), But was the direction fido took the best?  

        I know that the number of nodes had to be expanded, but that 
        could have been done without the nets.  (Currently there can 
        be over 32,000 nodes / net.  Obviously that should be large 
        enough for quite a while).  Too much work was being done by 
        fido 51 and I agree that it makes a lot of sense that 
        "geographical regions" be set up to assign new nodes.  

        One of the major problems with the newest version is that the 
        routing is included with the node list.  That means that most 
        of the time, there will be at least 2 phone calls made to send 
        fido mail.  The problems with this approach are: 

        1).  The host is VERY! busy.  It sometimes takes many days to 
             get through to the host.  
        2).  There is NO way to know if the fidomail ever got through 
             to the destination 
        3).  More phone calls are generated / evening which increases 
             the congestion.  

        For those (few?) people who send mail each evening to more 
        than 1 node served by a host, there is a savings using the 
        routing.  I am sure that some of the busy nodes want the 
        routing, but some of us (most of us?) probably don't see the 
        savings.  

        It makes sense that the node list is sorted by region and this 
        should have been done in the past.  Since I am going to assume 
        that most sysops have better editors than edlin, It should not 
        be a problem to put your "region" at the top so they are the 
        first ones displayed.  For those of us who use fidomail often, 
        we probably remember the 2 or 3 nodes that we usually send 
        mail to.  

        Minor complaint; I find it easier to remember 1 number (even a 
        4 digit number which allows 10,000 nodes than a net/node 
        number combination.  I am fido #208 and I would rather not 
        have another #208 even in a different region.  Most people are 
        probably smarter than me so maybe this will not cause problems 
        for others.  

        I have been a software consultant for over 10 years now and 
        there are 2 sayings that I try to live by.  

        1.  K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
        2.  If the damn thing works, LEAVE IT ALONE!

        So far, they have not failed me.  I just hope that by making 







FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:32           Page 4

        the current changes we have not opened a can of worms.  


        Bruce Lomasky
        Fido #208 (net 16 I think)
        West Hartford, CT


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FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:32           Page 5

        Mike Ringer
        Fido 117/437
        College Station, TX

                               The first call

        I can remember when my parents bought our first and only 
        computer!.  It was an IBM PC that I was very proud of.  We 
        bought it in the summer of 81, It had an amazing 48k which 
        we quickly upgraded to 64k and eventually to 256 when dad 
        found he could not run Lotus on 128k.  I got my modem a year 
        later after whinning one for weeks.  I signed on to my first 
        board to find that there was nothing not any thing for the 
        IBM! Now what do I do? well you leave messages, but I did 
        not understand how to leave them or get rid of the ones I 
        screwed up! After many futile tries the sysop broke in and 
        said "I thought IBM's were business machines?" This scared 
        the pajeebers out of me and I turned my modem off, calmed 
        down and called the board back back and the sysop explained 
        what had happened.  This is something you just don't do to a 
        first time user folks! I don't care how nice the sysop is 
        you just don't tell a 13 year old kid that there are no 
        games for his computer (by the way I have forgiven Paul for 
        doing this).  So I sat down and wrote a game called Zor and 
        then wrote ZorII and I'm in the process of writing ZorIII 
        but I haven't gotten very far.  After playing my game about 
        ten times I decided it was no fun to play your own adventure 
        games because yo knew how to win them.  Finaly the sysop I 
        had my first encounter with got some games and I was 
        satisfied for a while but not for ever.  Now I have about 30 
        disks full of games and another 20 full of utilities progams 
        I don't have time to use because I'm to busy trying to 
        scrape enough money together so I can install a phone line 
        and put up a board and share my games and ancient wares but 
        till then I'll try to upload to the other boards in College 
        Station.  Your probably wondering though why I don't make 
        long distance calls to other boards well I have two very 
        good reasons! 1)Don't have the money to call long distance 
        2)You must be validated on most boards before you can 
        download.  I have been helping alot of my friend with thier 
        computers though.  I even have one paying 15 dollars and 
        hour to convert wordstar files to ascii and then uploading 
        them to his Commodore 64.  Along with doing that I have been 
        trying to write a program that allows my Pc to be a burgular 
        alarm.  Along with working 4:30-9:00 Tues,Thurs and 4:30-
        11:00 on Fri, Sat and 2:00-7:00 on Sunday, and fighting my 
        family for the use of the computer I don't see how I get any 
        thing done.  Maybe I should but my own computer instead of a 
        phone line! hmmmm lets see, 3400 dollars for a new computer? 
        well maybe I'll get the new phone line at 3.50 an hour I 
        don't think I will be able to get a new computer maybe a 
        used one but not a new one.  Oh well life does go on but my 
        article can't! Be on the look out for Ollie's board near the 
        end of the month.  I think I'll have a game review on the 
        board and expand it to Fido news so Fido users will know 
        what Pd games are worth playing!  








FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:38           Page 6

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FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:38           Page 7

        Hello from Fido 17/35
        Greg Martz

          I run a relatively new bbs, and one with a different 
        flavor.  I wanted to have a place to call and get info and 
        numbers to other BBS's around the nation.  Since I could not 
        find one, I decided to start my own.  Since this is the 
        first Fido to be devoted to the upkeep of other BBS's, I 
        don't have a preset format to follow.  I know that most all 
        BBS's have their own list of local and national numbers, but 
        I thought there might just be a need for a "National" number 
        keeper.  The reason I'm writing this is because I would like 
        to ask for help.  If all the Fido's would compile their list 
        of numbers and send them to me via Netmail, that would be of 
        great help.  I also need some help verifying the numbers.  
         
          I am thinking of putting in a file section so that any BBS 
        who has a pay system can Advertise their systems, and can 
        keep a current catalog on file.  Any input or suggestions?  
        If you would like to help out, or want some further info. 
        send a message via netmail to me at net 17 node 35.  
          
          Note: My system is semi-restricted.  If you would like 
        advance sign-up send Name, Pwd, Phone#, etc.  



                                                Greg Martz
                                                Sysop Fido 17/35



































FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:39           Page 8

        ============================================================
                              FOR SALE
        ============================================================
        The Computer Farm now carries Hard Drives for the Sanyo MBC 
        55x Computers.  We are operating these systems on our Fido 
        node 428. The system is an External 5 or 10 meg system with 
        controler and driver for up 4 drives. We have Tested the 
        driver with MSDOS 2.11, DS-DOS and AOK DOS. The hard drive 
        system only   takes 10-20 min. to install.  

        5 Meg External ................ 995.00
        10 Meg External ...............1095.00

        For more information on thes systems send mail to Node 428 
        net 15 or call 1 800 621 8386  Ext 283. In Colorado call 303 
        495-3815.  


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FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:40           Page 9

           ===========================================================
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           |                                                         |
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           |     we have the ultimate software package for you !     |
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           |                                                         |
           | BUSTER is available in compiled Basic, or for those of  |
           |  you who play 2 or 3 Lottos at the same time, we have   |
           | a version in Better Basic that takes full advantage of  |
           |         of an 8087 co-processor automatically.          |
           |                                                         |
           |  Buster is available by mail for the discount price of  |
           |  $ 29.95 for either version. Source code is available   |
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           |                                                         |
           |  Send a Postal Money Order to: Software, 137 Prospect   |
           |   Street, Nanuet, New York 10954 for 7 day delivery.    |
           ===========================================================












































FIDONEWS     --           24 Jun 85  00:00:41           Page 10

        ============================================================
                               NOTICES
        ============================================================
                                Fidonews Bugs

        You may have noticed that last week's issue of Fidonews came 
        out a little late in some areas.  It seems we made what 
        appears to be a fairly common mistake.

        Fido treats its node list as gospel.  If you have a 1200 
        baud modem and try to send mail to a node with a 2400 baud 
        modem, Fido will try to make the call at 2400 baud.  
        Obviously, this won't work very well.  (You are in a 
        similar, or worse, position if you have a 300 baud modem.)

        The answer is to edit your node list, making sure that 
        nobody is listed with a higher baud rate than you can 
        support.

        We overlooked this for the simple reason that NODELIST.EXE 
        used to take care of this for us.

        ------------------------------------------------------------
                         *** Calendar of Events ***

        30 Jun 85 Submissions deadline for next issue of Fidonews.  







        If you have any event you want listed in this calendar, 
        please send a note to node 107/375.