Volume 2, Number 38 4 November 1985 +----------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - Fidonews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and Fidonet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Publisher: Fido 1/1 Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Review Editor: Matt Kanter Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 1/1. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in Fidonews. Article submission standards are contained in the file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 1/1. 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. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL Settling In 2. NEWS The Dirty Dozen Ripping off Tom Jennings, and all of us Any Libertarians out there? 3. COLUMNS FidoNet Route Files Explained, Part 1 4. WANTED Kurzweil 4000 computer wanted 5. NOTICES The Interrupt Stack Death and Corporate Politics A Warning to Quadram Owners ============================================================ EDITORIAL ============================================================ Settling In Well, I'm finally getting settled in my new location. We recently sold our house and ended up not buying a new one, but that's another story (and a very long one). We're now living in an apartment. It still doesn't feel like home, but it's getting there. At least I no longer have to mow the lawn or shovel the snow. I won't really be comfortable though until I get some shelves up and unpack all my books. One thing moving proved to me -- I own too darn many books. Moving my hardware was less of a hassle than I'd expected. I backed up everything, ran SHIPDISK, and took the whole thing apart. After trucking it across town I set it up again and turned it on. Everything was fine. I was down about two hours. We had some hassle with the phone numbers, but 1/1 has the right number in the new node list (I checked it personally). I know at least one person out there is trying to send us an article -- my phone has been ringing off the wall every night from four to five for a week. Maybe now he'll get through. I hope so. This change of phone numbers has had it's bad points. We've gotten almost no submissions this week. We had a couple on file, and Ben Baker starts his column on routing this week, so it's not a total loss, but I'll be glad when things get back to normal. That's right, folks! We need your input. Start writing those articles and sending them in. Get your hands on node list 305 and mail your article to node 1/1. If you want a copy of the technical specs, drop us a line and we'll mail it to you. We're not really a bulletin board here, so don't count on much if you call. We've got a little thing running to pass out the newsletter and such, but it isn't up often. We do all our work by netmail, generally. So go write something and netmail it to us! ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 2 4 Nov 1985 ============================================================ NEWS ============================================================ THE DIRTY DOZEN Issue #3: Oct 30th, 1985 Compiled by Tom Neff Recently, many unlawfully copied or modified programs have appeared on various IBM PC bulletin boards across the country. THE DIRTY DOZEN is a list of known examples. There are three major categories of "bogusware": commercial pirate jobs, unauthorized "hacks" of otherwise legitimate freeware programs, and malicious "TROJAN" programs which damage your system. A more detailed explanation of each category is given below. Sysops: Please be careful with the files you post in your download libraries! Be suspicious when an uploaded game or disk utility appears to be of professional quality, yet doesn't include the author's name, address, and distribution policy. Such programs are probably NOT public domain! The BBS community is already under legislative threat at the State and Federal level. We cannot fight this trend effectively while our directories sit stocked with "cracked" Sega games, 1-2-3 copiers and Wargames dialers! Let's demonstrate a little social responsibility by cleaning up our download libraries. If you have any of these files on your system, please delete them and post "blocking" dummy file entries like this one: ZAXXON.COM DELETED!! NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN!! A final word on TROJANS: I have been hearing more and more reports of these "worm" programs, from all directions. While I don't doubt their existence (and all that I have heard of are listed below), let's not get hysterical. Remember, a Trojan rumor is a lot easier to START than it is to STOP. Some people have accused "legitimate" *joke* programs, like DRAIN (which pretends to be gurgling excess water out of your A drive) of being "killers." Even if a program locks up your system, it isn't necessarily Trojan; it might not like co-residing with Superkey, or your graphics card. Ask around a little before you announce something as Trojan. I would appreciate a bagged specimen of any Real trojan program you find. Name Category Notes -------------- -------- --------------------------------- 1DIR.COM PIRATED This is "The ONE Dir," a commercial shell sold with a Hard Disk subsystem. 21C.EXE PIRATED From the IBM Game Library ARC.COM HACKED Someone keeps running SPACEMAKER or a similar EXE squeezer on SEA, Fidonews Page 3 4 Nov 1985 Inc.'s ARC archive program, then uploading the resulting COM file to BBS's without the author's permission. Not kosher, whoever you are. SEA won't support the COM version -- this is an unauthorized modification. AXX.EXE PIRATED really AUTODEX, a commercial file manager BUSHIDO PIRATED COPYRITE PIRATED Really Quaid Software's COPYWRITE DEB88.EXE PIRATED DeSmet "C" debugger DIGGER.COM PIRATED DOSKNOWS.EXE *TROJAN* I'm still tracking this one down -- apparently someone wrote a FAT killer and renamed it DOSKNOWS.EXE, so it would be confused with the real, harmless DOSKNOWS system-status utility. All I know for sure is that the REAL DOSKNOWS.EXE is 5376 bytes long. If you see something called DOSKNOWS that isn't close to that size, sound the alarm. More info on this one is welcomed -- a bagged specimen especially. EGABTR *TROJAN* BEWARE! Description says something like "improve your EGA display," but when run it deletes everything in sight and prints "Arf! Arf! Got you!" F15 PIRATED FILER.EXE *TROJAN* Labelled "Great new filing system" - wiped out 20 meg HD. Looking for confirmation on this. GREMLINS PIRATED HARDHAT PIRATED JOUST PIRATED KONG PIRATED LIST60 HACKED Vern Buerg's LIST 5.1, patched to read 6.0. NOVATRON PIRATED PCBOSS PIRATED POOL.ARC PIRATED Really PC-POOL, commercial game PSHIFT PIRATED really MEMORY SHIFT PSRD.ARC PIRATED IBM utility (redirects PrtSc) QMDM110.ARC HACKED ONLY versions 1.10 and 1.10A! QMDM110A.ARC They are copies of 1.09, hacked to read 1.10. There have been rumors of a worm in 1.10, but I haven't seen any evidence of it. Other versions are OK. ROBOTRON PIRATED ROGUE.EXE PIRATED SECRET.BAS *TROJAN* BEWARE!! This may be posted with a note saying it doesn't seem to work, and would someone please try it; when you do, it formats Fidonews Page 4 4 Nov 1985 your disks. SEE PIRATED DeSmet editor SFX PIRATED really AUTODEX (again!) SM.COM PIRATED Realia's SPACEMAKER utility SMAP PIRATED IBM Internal utility, with the copyright notice blanked out and real author's name () replaced by "Dorn W. Stickle". SPYHUNT PIRATED STARGATE.EXE PIRATED Hacked to say "PUBLIC DOMAIN BY ATARI," but don't you believe it! Don't confuse this 57K EXE file with the public domain STARGATE MERCHANT game, which is a little 12K BASIC program by G. E. Wolfworth. STRIPES.EXE *TROJAN* BEWARE SYSOPS!! This one draws an American flag (nice touch), but meanwhile it's busy copying your RBBS-PC.DEF to another file (STRIPES.BQS) so Bozo can log in later, download STRIPES.BQS, and steal all your passwords. Nice, huh! TREED.COM PIRATED Really DOS TREE DISPLAY (IBM utility) VDIR.EXE *TROJAN* This is the disk killer Jerry Pournelle told us about in BYTE Magazine. I have never seen it. XDIR PIRATED Pre-release version of DOS FILE TRACKER, an IBM "Personally Developed" program. ZAXXON PIRATED If you have any additions or corrections for this list, send them to me (Tom Neff) at any of the following places: * CompuServe User ID [76556,2536] (via Easyplex electronic mail or the IBM Novice Forum, GO IBMNOV) * Atlantic Palisades RBBS (718-238-7855) * DEC-WARE Fido (Net 107/Node 1) ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 5 4 Nov 1985 Paula Giese Fido 14/999 Ripping off Tom Jennings, and all of us Billion-dollar corporations are ripping off Tom Jennings, author of the Fido software that all of us are beneficiaries of. This software was written by Jennings and is copyrighted by him, and a great deal of work was done by a small number of others, some of whom have copyrighted utilities, some of whom just pitched in. Moreover, one billion-dollar corporation is ripping off hundreds of SysOps, potentially everyone who has put his or her own time, effort and money into running a BBS, and, for bad measure, everyone who's ever shared a utility or program they worked on by uploading it to a BBS library, and everyone who's helped just by "passing on" good things to make them available on BBSes other than where you got them. I'm going to give two examples of this. Both of the corporations involved have revenues in the billions, and neither of them has contacted Jennings for permission, license, or paid any fees to him. Neither has the first giant pirate contacted any of *us* or offered us any say in whether we want to be raw material--the only raw material it has to market. I want to encourage every Fido SysOp and every Fido user to collect transcripts from any corporate users they know about, so that Jennings and his lawyers may collect fees and damages from them. Secondly, I want to encourage everyone with a modem to spread this article and its associated files to every BBS in the country, in particular all of those which are listed as raw material, the products, that GTE is marketing; but every other BBS is fair game as well. GTE TELENET If you subscribe to Byte or PC Magazine (and many others) you can see the ad that rips off both Jennings and every SysOp. In the October Byte it's on page 365. In the October 29 PC Magazine, it's on Page 90. Full-page ads both. They show a guy touching the ground and say "Now you don't have to pay this much to access information with your home computer." How much? "Now for only $25 a month (plus a one-tme installation fee of $25) you'll be able to reach othr PC subscribers free. Free local databases and bulletin boards..." When I accessed the number given--800-835-3001--I made a transcript of my interaction. It shows Fido 10m in use, with several thousand callers already. I was mad already on Jennings' behalf. But when I examined the limited files area i could access without paying those fees, I really hit the ceiling. What Fidonews Page 6 4 Nov 1985 are these free databases? Boys and girls, it's us they're selling for $25 a month and a $25 installation fee. If you're a SysOp, they want you. You may not want a bunch of users who are paying a billion-dollar company for all the work you do maintaining your BBS, you may not want a bunch of freeloaders who'll siphon off all your downloads and block your regular and valued users from access. But, see, you're part of the merchandise. I'd have no hesitation at all about suing GTE if LawSIG, predecessor to Fido LawCAT, were on that list. No doubt they'll catch up to Minnesota soon. PC Pursuit is what General Tel and El calls their service, and folks, they're after us. Now, how about you BBS users who *aren't* sysops? Quite a few of you are the "communicators" who make BBSes the overwhelming *private* and *person-to-person* communications successes they are. You are always willing (and often able) to help out another user with hardware and software tips, advice, encouragement. You often upload aids and utilities you developed yourself, just because you want to share them with others, for the general good of computing. Sometimes you've written fairly elaborate applications, which you distribute through BBSes, relying on fairness of those who find your package useful to pay you a fair fee--and you don't think Lotus, MicroSoft, and the Big Money software giants are charging fair fees, in the big bks$ that pay for all their ad campaigns. Okay, so your software is part of what GTE is marketing for just $25 a month and a $25 "installation fee" whatever that means. Do you suppose many GTE subscribers will also pay you? I am damn sure that no GTE subscribers who access my system will ever send me any little sums "to help out with your costs and to thank you for doing this for all of us," and I'm pretty damn sure I won't get any thankyous from the GTE crowd whose corporations are paying that tiny fee for them. I don't like having my hard work and love of these systems exploited by a multibillion dollar corporation. So how do you feel about it, fellow SysOps? Users who upload as well as download, how do you folks feel about this violation and exploitation of our community? Now let's look at another problem, the private corporate piracy that's ripping off someone all we Fido users have greatly benefitted from. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of corporations have picked upthe Fido software and set up their own private in-house nets. Did they contact Tom Jennings, whose copyright and address cannot be avoided when you run Fido? They did not. Did they pay the modest $100 he initially asked for "commercial" use of Fido? Don't be silly. There is some financial institution in the Twin Cities which is using Fido; the banker proudly boasted on Fido LawCAT that he is a follower of Ayn Rand's "money=goodness" philosophy. "Why should I pay for what others get for Fidonews Page 7 4 Nov 1985 free?" he said. I can't give his transcript, because he left it in a message, which he later snuck back on and killed. I do have a transcript of my interaction with a private corporate Fidonet. This one's operated by Honeywell, Inc., a multibillion-dollar corporation headquartered in Minneapolis, which, unlike many of them, has extended a periscope into our national Fidonet--although you can't get onto it, and they don't reply to Fidomail sent to them. Unless you've been authorized by company security, you get shunted right off that system. They have the nerve even to use the trademarked "Fido" hound John Madill drew. The Military Avionics Division of Honeywell, which pirated this software, is responsible for approximately $390,000,000 of Honeywell's annual revenues. You'd think they could afford to pay for it, instead of stealing it, as they have done. Jennings told me that he and others know of scores of corporate ripoffs. These include Southwestern Bell, which attempted to charge a 15-year-old $100 a month, because he had a modem on his home phone to run a BBS two years ago. They include 3M, another multibillion-dollar Minnesota giant, whose corporate employees contacted local Fido SysOps for setup help, because they didn't know enough to earn their salaries carrying out their theft unaided by their victims. Because we're all their victims, victims of these corporate thieves. How long can the BBS culture, which we created ourselves, last in the face of this massive exploitation? Who will want to give away his or her work, only to see gross profits racked up from it by giant corporate exploiters? WHAT WE CAN AND SHOULD DO First collect any information you can get about commercial users. Jennings knows who has paid him (all 11 of them) and who hasn't, so don't attempt to find that out; just collect their names and phone numbers. If possible, collect evidentiary transcripts, as I have done, as complete as possible, if you can get on the system at all. Send these, together with a statement as to how you know who the corporate or government users are to me at Fido LawCAT 14/999. The statement should be like mine; it should ID yourself, and give contact information (address/phone). If Jennings can afford to hire a lawyer, the lawyer can use such transcripts as evidence to collect for the unauthorized use of the copyrighted software. What is a "commercial user"? Jennings defined for me what he had in mind as "Who can use it for free," it is those who are creating Fidos "in the public interest." In general, anyone who operates a BBS accessible to the general public is doing that, whether there is a registration fee or "special interest group" limitation. A store that runs a Fidonews Page 8 4 Nov 1985 public BBS, a company that operates a public BBS as a good- will gesture, are examples of "public interest" users who can use it free. A government agency, a corporation, or an individual who expects to make a profit from the use of a private Fido, or Fidonet, or to use it for internal convenience of its staff, or in the carrying out of its mission or duties--these are examples of Fido users who must pay a license fee for the first node, and another for each additional node, as set by Fido Marketing. Both GTE, which intends to make a profit from using Fido to exploit all the rest of us, and Honeywell, which intends "for the convenience of its employees" to maintain a private Fidonet, are excellent examples of users who must and should be made to pay Fido Software's fees. Any group which is in doubt about its status should apply to Jennings at Fido 125/1 for clarification as to whether it qualifies as a public interest group, or not. In general, every "private" Fido, to which access cannot be gained by "normal" registration by responsible users should probably apply to Jennings, and should expect to pay a reasonable fee for its use of his software. In fact, the issues raised by widespread corporate and perhaps governmental piracy of Jennings' copyrighted software are relatively simple to resolve. All he needs is money to hire a lawyer; there would be no problem collecting fees (and costs and perhaps damages) from both Honeywell and GTE--if Jennings could afford to hire the help he'd need to do it. Some of you who've enjoyed and benefited from your use of Fido might think about that and send Jennings a little money to help do that. Lawyers don't come cheap. THE OTHER ISSUE There is a much more difficult issue raised by GTE's commercial exploitation of all BBSes and of virtually everyone who uses a BBS. We are all resources for each other, in BBSes, whether networked like Fido or not. The knowledge and talents of each user are part of a pool of resources we all share by means of these systems. It is exactly that--US--that GTE is selling. I'm not sure what I can do about it, unless and until they list my Fido LawCAT. Should they do so, whatever it costs in time and money, I'll sue them. How do the rest of you feel? Let's have some discussion of this exploitation, while there are still BBSes alive to do it on. I feel that this commercial exploitation of our work will so disgust a great many SysOps that the system will be destroyed by these sharks who are moving in to profiteer off of it. It should be discussed on all BBSes. I invite SysOps and Fidonews Page 9 4 Nov 1985 users to contribute ideas to the "Issues" message/discussion section (Msg Area 10) on Fido LawCAT, 612-872-2352; or FMAIL--I'll see if I can recopy it and post it--at 14/999. Though there are relatively few modem-using lawyers, it has been my intention since 1982 to educate them to "computer law issues" by involving them in discussions with the computer community, and exposing them to specific legal problems computers raise. Software piracy is an issue LawSIG has done a lot of educating on over the years. Now we have a new one, I don't even know how to describe it. GTE wants to steal *all of us* in effect, and piracy of Tom Jennings' software is a means to that larger theft. What kind of a crime is that? How can lawyers help us prevent it? I appologise for the length of this piece; I feel the issues are urgent, and the matter needs to be spread around quickly. (Paula Giese, aka SysOp Fuzzy, Fido LawCAT, 14/999; 612-872-2352) ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 10 4 Nov 1985 Any Libertarians out there? Daniel Tobias, FIDO 129/13 I am presently attempting to put together, for future publication, a directory of Libertarians who are reachable by electronic mail. Someday, computerized communication may take its place alongside the telephone and the postal system as a commonplace form of communication, butcurrently only a select group of forward-thinking individuals enjoys this powerful communication tool. Since those supporting the Libertarian philosophy of personal and economic freedom and drastically limited government are also forward-thinking people, it is reasonable to suppose that many of them are already making use of computerized communications. The intent of the directory is to put all such people's names and computer mail addresses together in one place, to facilitate communication and informal networking among them. If you wish to be listed, please send me the following information, in the order given: a) Your name. b) Your computer mail address(es). Include here the addresses which can be used to send you computer mail. These can be on any computer system or network, including FidoNet, ArpaNet, UUCP, BitNet, or CompuServe. If you have computer addresses on several different networks, include all of them. c) Include, if you wish, a single line describing your occupation, position in Libertarian organizations, special interests, or anything else you feel is descriptive of yourself so that prospective electronic "pen-pals" who do not know you by name can find people who share common interests. You have several ways of getting this information to me. You can send it by FidoMail to 'Daniel Tobias' at FIDO 129/13. I also can be reached as DT04@TF.CC.CMU.EDU on the Arpanet. Or, if you prefer a more old-fashioned means of communication, you may send it on paper to: Daniel Tobias 4730 Centre Ave. Apt. 212 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Thank you for helping make this project a success! Disclaimer: Although this post originates from a Fido BBS run by a member of the L-5 Society, the L-5 Society is not a Libertarian organization and does not in any way endorse the content of this post. I am just a user of this BBS; I'm not the sysop, although I hope to someday start a Libertarian- oriented BBS when I have the proper equipment. Fidonews Page 11 4 Nov 1985 ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 12 4 Nov 1985 ============================================================ COLUMNS ============================================================ FidoNet Route Files Explained Part 1 -- The Many Faces of FidoNet by Ben Baker, Fido 100/76 There is no aspect of FidoNet more universally mis- understood than routing. It is the intent of this foru- part series to clear some of the fog. The justification for nets and routing has been discussed many times and will NOT be discussed again here. Given that routing is good, how is it done? What's the meaning of the various statements that go into route files? Indeed, what's the meaning of route files? Let's first take a look at "the network." But how do we do that? In reality, there is no "the network." FidoNet is a different thing when viewed by each different Fido! The only formal definition of FidoNet is the node list, and it serves as an adaquate view of "the network" for most independent Fidos but only the members of some nets. Consider the hypothetical node, Fido 21/7. He's an independent member of a "Region." To him, "the network" is a couple of hundred other independent nodes to whom he sends messages directly and another couple of hundred to which he has access through 36 defined "Hosts." If he receives a message not addressed to his node, his Fido "orphans" it. He has no intention of forwarding someone else's mail. They can pay their own phone bills! When he sends a message to 18/3, Fido knows (from the node list) that is another independent and sends the message direct. When he sends a message to 100/76, Fido knows (from the node list) that is a member of net 100 and sends it to 100/0. Fido 21/7 executes only schedule A during the national mail window. He has no use for ANY route files. Another hypothetical node, Fido 201/4 is a member of an "inbound only" net. Since the sysop has used the '4' command properly, Fido knows he is a member of net 201 and will treat other members of that net as though they were independent nodes. When he sends a message to 201/5, Fido will send it direct and not to 201/0. Messages headed out- side net 201 will be handled for 201/4 just as they were for 21/7. Fido 201/4 executes two schedules, A during the national window followed immediatly by B when he just sits quietly and waits for 201/0 to send him any mail he received. He has no use for ANY route files. Everyone else has a view of "the network" more complicated than Fido can discover from just the node list. If you're a Southern California Hub, or a local node in the New York Megalopolis, or maybe the host of a modest network in Memphis "the network" looks different to you than to Fidonews Page 13 4 Nov 1985 other sysops. It is the function of route files to modify Fido's view of "the network" to conform to yours. If your Fido is executing any mail event and any other Fido calls it up and offers it a mail packet, your Fido will graciously receive that packet and at the end of the mail event, he will unpack it into messages. These actions have nothing whatever to do with route files! Reread that last paragraph two or three times until it sinks in. It is a very important, very misunderstood point. Route files do not and cannot control the way you receive mail. ROUTE FILES CONTROL ONLY THE WAY YOU SEND MAIL!!! After all, that's when you're paying the phone bill. Furthermore, what you say in ROUTE.B has absolutely nothing to do with how Fido behaves in schedule C. I will come back to this point later. Ever since we first began routing FidoNet messages to places other than their final destination, route files have used three basic commands to mold Fido's view of FidoNet to correspond with your view. In part 2 we will look at SCHEDULE, ROUTE-TO and ACCEPT-FROM and see just how they influence Fido. Part 3 will examine a bevy of new routing commands available with Fido V11 and see how they have made automatic distribution at last possible. LISTGEN V2 is capable of generating route files auto- matically. Part 4 will discuss how ROUTE.CTL statements map to route file commands. Stay with me for the next few weeks and maybe we can burn off the fog and find a bright sky, a calm sea and clear sailing. (And don't throw away your newsletters, you'll want to refer back from time to time.) ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 14 4 Nov 1985 ============================================================ WANTED ============================================================ Hello to all the Fido News readers south of the border !! I am writing this in an attempt to find out if there is a chance that there might be a similar machine to the one that we are looking at purchasing (and or leasing.) I guess I should explain what it is that I am planning on leasing (or purchasing, I can dream I guess!) The system is called the Kurzweil 4000 and comes from Kurzweil Computer Products in Massachusetts and is an excellent optical character recogntion system that uses artificial intelligence software. The person running the system "teaches" the system the font or type style in a learning session, (the learning session can take from 5 to 30 mins depending on the type style or condition of the document read). Once the learning session has taken place the system can retain what it has learned for future use on the hard drive that comes with the system. The 4000 can handle type setting or word processing codes, ligatures, and special formatting instructions. The 4000 analyzes each character by analyzing its shape, it can recognize any type font in sizes ranging from 6 to 24 point, including multiple fonts within a single document. Now that you know what the system is capable of (and no I am not a Kurzweil salesman!!!) You might know of a similar system ( I cant really say clone system with its power!) that is slightly lower priced! You see Xerox Canada has grabbed this and have priced the system at approx $85,000 with all the bells and whistles! In the States it is priced at about $40,000 U.S. !!!!! Even with the exchange Xerox is taking myself and other interested parties for a ride!!!! Would you believe they want $7,550 for a *&*&!!@ sheet feeder !! Well you get the point I will not bitch any longer. You say why not buy it from Kurzweil directly! Well Kurzweil stands firm on Xerox and will not sell one to us as it under contractual obligation to Xerox !!! If you have any information about a similar product in the States or anywhere else for that matter I would appreciate you dropping me a line at Fido 111/608. (please note that the system has changed its number and has yet be updated in the latest nodelist. The number is 1-416-231-7113.) Thanks for your time Fidonews Page 15 4 Nov 1985 Rob Benner Sysop DiSC2: The Information Exchange Net 111 Node 608 ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 16 4 Nov 1985 ============================================================ NOTICES ============================================================ The Interrupt Stack 23 Nov 1985 European sysop conference -- Utrecht, The Netherlands. Contact node 3101 for details. 27 Nov 1985 Halley's Comet passes closest to Earth before perihelion. 24 Jan 1986 Voyager 2 passes Uranus. 9 Feb 1986 Halley's Comet reaches perihelion. 9 Feb 1986 Diana Overholt (109/74) has another birthday. 11 Apr 1986 Halley's Comet reaches perigee. 19 May 1986 Steve Lemke's next birthday. 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 Fido 1/1. ------------------------------------------------------------ Am sad to report the death of fido 17/2 on Monday the 27th of October. The death will be caused by an overdose of corporate oversight. Said impending death was reported to me by the DJ today. The company could no longer see any profit other than goodwill and so issued the notice of execution. Neal Curtin, BECS FIDO ------------------------------------------------------------ A Warning to Quadram Owners If you own a Quadram board with an on-board clock that is over a year old, BEWARE! The batteries on some of these boards have been reported to go bad and leak, dripping acid on the motherboard. Fidonews Page 17 4 Nov 1985 The batteries to worry about are those with a green stripe. The batteries with a black stripe are okay. Quadram is reportedly aware of the problem, and taking steps to deal with it. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 18 4 Nov 1985