Volume 3, Number 12 24 March 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 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. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL A BBs User's View 2. ARTICLES Astronomy SIG Four Hard Questions About Hard Disks DoubleDOS, Multiple Users, and Fido Sysop's Spare Time In Memory of the Challenger Response to Neal Curtain's article on Software Support "Stone Wall" is on the air! 3. COLUMNS Notes from Abroad 4. WANTED Help! I need YOU!! 5. FOR SALE Entertainment Software for your PC! Public Domain Software Library Sale!! Special Offer to FidoNet Sysops 6. NOTICES Major BUG in Fido 11u! The Interrupt Stack ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Fred Berger 1/11/86 A BBs User's View As a subscriber to numerous BB systems I feel it's time for me to speak my piece on open and closed systems. This week three of the BBs I call were crashed by people who have nothing better to do with their time than hurt other people. It's a real pain in the you know what to us, the honest sub- scribers, to have to fill out new user forms every few weeks on systems that have been crashed. We moan and groan, and have numerous discussions via the message systems about how troublesome all of this is to us. That was my attitude until this week, when I decided to look into the idea of opening my own BB. I picked up some decent BB software and started rummaging through the documentation. Golly whiz, there sure is a lot to do being a Sysop. Not only do you have to make up menus, dedicate a computer or two to the system, buy phone lines and modems, but then after all that guess what, you've got to spend time every day to maintain the stupid thing! You get to edit files, write bulletins, maintain numerous file directories, come up with great ideas to keep your users happy, and all of this is in most cases is done for free. Sounds like real fun doesn't it? After you've committed to having all that fun, you spend weeks obtaining great files for all your wonderful users to download, because if you wait for them to give you a file or two you'll be out of business. After all, subscribers (or should I more properly call them users?) haven't the time or patience in most cases to watch their computers sitting there uploading. It takes too much time to upload. Downloading is much, much faster. 2400, 1200, 300 or whatever baud is a lot faster going downhill. Any idiot knows that !! So now you've got the system up and working. You're proud of your work, open the system to the general public. You're high minded (or stupid and naive) enough to think that everyone is like you. But you're wrong! Two weeks after the system is up some yokel (I have other descriptions) puts a little worm in your system, and guess what you get....CRASH! Now you're in real trouble. No don't worry, Mr. or Mrs. Sysop, it's not the crashed system that's the problem, it's the wonderful users who'll be upset when they have to re-register. They may never call back again! Wouldn't that be horrible. You'd have all that equipment just sitting around doing nothing. So the good old Sysop decides to redo everything, and the BB is back in business. Fidonews Page 2 24 Mar 1986 After studying the situation, I've become convinced that most Sysops must be nuts. Who would do all that for free? In talking to these lunatics I've found most to be dedicated to the idea of providing a useful service. One asked what I thought of him closing the system to the general public. My answer was simple. I am a subscriber to both free and pay BBs. I find that closed systems are generally better. Why? Simple, a person values something he or she purchases. Are these lunatics (Sysops) providing us with a service? To me the answer is a definite YES! Most of the programs I use were free because I obtained them via BBs. Much of the really important knowledge I've acquired has been found in BB message bases. And you know what? Most of those above mentioned "mosts", if you understand my meaning, came from pay services. I don't want to single any system out, but for the sake of example I'm going to use Gene Plantz's system. He charges an outrageous rate of a whole $15.00 per year for membership. When I enter a message on his system, asking for advice, help, or whatever, I can count on getting several answers within hours at most from other subscribers. I can enter the same message on a free system, and guaranteed, I usually get zip. The point I'm trying to make is maybe we get what we pay for. Maybe free systems are becoming a thing of the past. Maybe that's the way it should be. I'd never NOT pay for Gene's service. It's been too valuable to me. After looking into becoming the Sysop of my own system, estimating the time and effort that would have to be expended, I've decided that I really couldn't afford to give it away. I'd have to charge a fee. So why shouldn't others do the same? I'm really not trying to be a preacher. I'm just trying to put things in perspective. Could we users become Sysops and give our services away? The answer is no, because if it was yes, everyone would be running a BB. How much is a fair price? I don't know, I'm god-like, not God. How much does a movie cost? A matinee is pretty cheap, providing you don't have kids who want candy or pop. Should I be willing to pay the cost of a couple of movie tickets for a year's membership on a BB? Maybe. What should I do if the Sysop decides to keep his service free? Maybe I should participate in discussions, upload a file or two once in a while? Not a bad idea. Maybe I should express my views, share some of my knowledge, contribute for the benefit of the service, and the other subscribers. Who knows, if others did the same, we all might learn a little something. Possible? I'm done spouting off now. I was really aggravated after talking to a couple of these Sysops in person, learning of their honest desire to provide a service, and then calling back to see that their systems had been crashed. I guess you can't understand the other guy's point of view until you know him. In conclusion, whether the service is free or whether Fidonews Page 3 24 Mar 1986 there's a small charge isn't the issue. I've learned that what really motivates the person who becomes a Sysop is the desire to help. What turns most of them on is not money, but an active group of subscribers sharing not only programs, but knowledge. These services are of great value to us, the computer user community, and should treated with some degree of respect. The hackers and slackers have to be eliminated one way or another, and if fees help, well that's the way it is. It doesn't do us any good to have free service if the service isn't available because it's been crashed. I'd like to thank several subscribers on Plantz's board for knowledge they've shared with me, but guess what, I don't even remember their names. It doesn't matter though, because I've given help where I could, and I'm sure those people don't remember mine either. The whole point is that all of us have gained. Thanks for your kind indulgence. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 4 24 Mar 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Arlen Fletcher Fido 138/0 Is There Anybody Out There? Somewhere out there among all you Fidonews readers there must be some amateur astronomers. This letter is addressed to those of you who are, have been, or would like to be involved in the computing end of amateur astronomy. A year or so ago, several Fido sysops banded together and began mailing around a box of 10 floppies. The originating Sysop filled the first diskette with utilities, games and other software that he considered to be useful. He then mailed the box off to the next sysop who copied the first diskette onto a blank of his own and then filled the second diskette as the first sysop had done, hopefully avoiding duplication. After the last sysop had done the same, the box was mailed back to the originator who reformatted the disk which he had originally filled, copied more files onto the now blank disk, copied all the other full disks, and then sent them all on to sysop number two again. This was a great way to keep the software flowing. I would like to suggest the same sort of operation for the amateur astronomers out there. Contact me on 138/0 if this scheme interests you. You DO NOT have to be a sysop to get in on this thing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 5 24 Mar 1986 Barry Dobyns Sysop 102/115, Machinedo - The Way Of The Machine (213) 548 3546 - data (213) 548 3544 - voice FOUR HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT HARD DISKS ------------------------------------ I have some questions that have been nagging me for some time about the IBM PC and hard disks. I am posing these questions to the general Fido community at large confident that someone out there knows the answers. If you do know how to solve one of these problems, send mail to me at 102/115. If you just want to know the answers, send me a note also. If enough interest in the answers is generated, I will summarize in a few weeks and post the results in FidoNews. 1. GETTING MORE THAN 2 HARD DISKS ON AN IBM PC -- ------------------------------------------- Some time ago, I developed a situation where I had numerous small hard disks (10, 15 meg) left from upgrading my IBM-PC's and my client's IBM-PC's. Now the market for used Miniscribe 2012 hard disks is pretty grim, but eight of them constitute 80Mb and that's almost interesting. Now, the IBM PC/XT hard disk controller has two jumpers on it AS1 and AS2 that control the ports that it is addressed at. (IBM Technical Reference 6025005 page D-64.) So does the DTC 5150-BX, W1 and W2. Normally the controller is addressed at 320H, but can be readdressed to 324H, 328H and 32CH. Furthermore, the IBM PC/XT Fixed Disk BIOS also knows how to address all four controllers! See IBM Technical Reference 6025005 Page A-88, lines 82, 83; Page A-95 lines 627 - 633; Page A-107 lines 1560 - 1585. So does the DTC. PC-DOS 2.1 FDISK even knows how to set up partition tables on hard disks connected to extra controllers. However, PC-DOS 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 and 3.1 all barf horribly when they are booted and more than two hard disks with DOS partitions are connected. Does anyone have a patch for DOS (preferably 3.1) that fixes this? Is there an installable device driver that I can use to accomplish the same thing? Is someone else now anxious to solve this problem (do you have a lot of 10 meg hard disks too?) and willing to work with me toward a solution? Fidonews Page 6 24 Mar 1986 2. THE DOS 33 MEGABYTE LIMIT -- ------------------------- 2.1 Theory 1 A friend of mine told me that a friend of his told him that the fix to PC-DOS to the 33Meg limit on Volume size is a 5 byte patch to DOS itself. Is this so? Does someone have a copy of the patch? How do you FORMAT a volume correctly once you have applied the patch? I don't want to pay $$$ for a five byte patch (typical for the commercial version of this thing) if that's all it really is. On the other hand, if it's not a simple patch, and the commercial version comes with programs that do all the formatting - and let me select the cluster size and fat entry size (12 or 16 bits) then maybe it's worth it. Does anyone have any experience with any of these programs, Especially the "VFeature" from Golden Bow in San Diego? Will Emerald sell their software without a subsystem? 2.2 Theory 2 Another source tells me that the problem is not with DOS, since there is no theoretical limit to the size of a hard disk (the clusters just keep getting bigger) the problem is with the DOS Format program, which is not clever enough to deal with truly moby drives. To wit: In DOS 2, with 12 bit FATs, and 4096 byte clusters, the theoretical limit for disk size was (2^12 - 16) * 4096 bytes, or around 16 Meg, and with 8K clusters it's around 33 MEG. If you were willing to WASTE space in the extreme, a 16K cluster could buy you a 66 MEG volume - but FORMAT can't deal with it. In DOS 3, with 16 bit FATs, and 2048 byte clusters the theoretical limit for disk size is (2^16 - 16) * 2048, or 134 MEG, which is a more reasonable limit. Bigger clusters buy you more, of course. Is it possible to simply modify the parameter table in the boot sector in the hard disk, and initialize the FAT and directory sectors myself? I have written a program that initializes, reads and writes MSDOS volumes for/on UNIX systems - it is not that hard to initialize a DOS volume. In other words, Is the "fix" not actually a patch to DOS, but a procedure that can be followed manually by any technically expert Wizard? Fidonews Page 7 24 Mar 1986 3. DISK CACHING PROGRAMS FOR IBM-PC -- -------------------------------- There's now quite a few Disk Caching/Disk Speedup programs for the IBM PC commercially available: VCache - Golden Bow Systems Uses Extended or Expanded memory for up to 16M of disk cache! $65 Lightning - Personal Computer Support Group Claims to speed up disk access by factor of 2 $49 copy protected, $89 not protected Flash - Software Masters Claims to speed up disk access by factor of 4 $49 Disk Optimizer - SoftLogic Solutions Claims to move things around on the hard disk so that all files reside in contiguous clusters. Doing a backup, format and a restore only gets the files contiguous, but not the directory clusters (in fact, it gives almost worst-case allocation for directories, which are where you want contiguous the most!). $49 Does anyone have any experience with any of these programs? Are there freeware products that are as good or better? 4. USING QUANTUM 2000 HARD DISK WITH ST506 CONTROLLER -- -------------------------------------------------- So, I have a Quantum 2040 and two Quantum 2080 hard disk drives lingering about here. It would please me greatly to hook them up to anything I have handy -that probably means either an IBM-PC (preferred) or an S-100 machine (probably a Seattle Computer Products, runs MS-DOS). Problem is, nobody seems to make controllers for SA1000 type hard disk drives anymore. The ST506 interface took over the market. I am told that I can use an ST506 controller - Thusly: signal name 34 pin conn. 50 pin conn *RWC 2 2 *Head Sel 2 4 4 *Write Gate 6 40 *Seek Complete 8 8 *TR000 10 42 *Write Fault 12 44 *Head Sel 3 14 14 *Sector 16 16 *Head Sel 1 18 18 *Index 20 20 *Ready 22 22 *Step 24 36 *Drive Sel 1 26 26 *Drive Sel 2 28 28 Fidonews Page 8 24 Mar 1986 *Drive Sel 3 30 30 *Drive Sel 4 32 32 *Direction In 34 34 ______ (the notation *signal means the same as signal, but overbars are hard to do) And furthermore, I can accomplish this by simply jumpering near the connector on the 20xx as follows: 6-40, 10-42, 12-44, 24-36 and just running 34 conductor cable all the way to the 20xx and terminating with a 50 pin connector (heh, heh) on the low order side of the cable. Has anyone tried this? Does it actually work? Thanks in advance, Barry Dobyns, 102/115 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 9 24 Mar 1986 David Melnik 107/33 How to set-up a Multiuser system on a PC for under 50$ I am sure that most of you are at least slightly familiar with the idea of a multiuser and/or multitasking system and would all like to have a machine that did both, right on your desk top. Well for $49.95 you can have one or the other as you desire. The program that you need is DoubleDOS by SoftLogic Solutions and it can be had for under $50 from various distributors and I believe from SoftLogic at 530 Chestnut St. Manchester, NH 03101 or 1-800-272-9900 (call them before sending money). What DoubleDOS does is partition your ROM into two separate areas (top and bottom sections) of various sizes that you can set from 48k to your maximum memory. DoubleDOS takes less than 50K. A minimum system configuration of 192K is recommended. DoubleDOS is a multitasking program that allows you to run two programs at once and switch between the two with the tap of a key. There are two tasks, the visible and the invisible tasks. The visible one is the one on your screen and the invisible one is the one running in the background. Obviously only one task can be visible at any time and direct screen writing programs must be run in the "top" section. The way to make DoubleDOS multitasking is easy. First switch the background task and start a program, then switch to the foreground task and start a program there, viola! Both programs are running. (Note: Check the DoubleDOS manual for automatic program starting with DoubleDOS.) What I had originally obtained a copy of DoubleDOS for was to make 107/33 a 24hrs. a day BBS. I'm sure a lot of sysops can sympathize with me in that their departments use the PC and DECs during the day for useless tasks like Accounts Payable and word processing, and not until everyone goes home does the real purpose for computers come to life, Fido and FidoNet! Well with DoubleDOS I thought that I would be able to keep the BBS up 24hrs. and I was. Well, almost. First off, version 11q of Fido seemed to run fine and all was well. Then 11s came and Fido would not run in the top or bottom section of DoubleDOS. When using 11q with DoubleDOS (I have DoubleDOS 3.1T and PC-DOS 3.1 with 512k on an XT with a 20 meg Seagate) I had a bottom section with approximately 170K and Fido ran fine with that. When 11s came I boosted the memory in the bottom section all the way to 300K+ and I still got a error that said not enough memory for program. Now this was not a DOS error message, as Fido came up with its disclaimers and licensing information, then gave the message and aborted. By decreasing the space that the environment used I finally got Fido and DoubleDOS running together. See NODELIST.052 and the file ENVIRON.FIX that came with it to decrease the size of the environment. Also I reset the path while running Fido, as Fido does not need a path. Aborting Fido resets the PATH via the RUNBBS.BAT batch file that I use to run Fido. Fidonews Page 10 24 Mar 1986 Getting to run two programs on my BBS had me so happy that I thought about how to get DoubleDOS to make my XT a multiuser system. Well, my experiment worked quite nicely and was rather simple. I used: 1 - Televideo 950 Terminal 1 - Null modem cable 1 - DoubleDOS ver. 3.1T 1 - Async board 1 - PC/XT with 512K I start up DOS with no resident software, and give a MODE command: MODE COM2:96,,,,P In the DoubleDOS configuration file, DDCONFIG.SYS, I set the following parameters: TOP = COM1 BOTTOM = COM2 BOTTOM PROGRAM = CTTY COM2 Now it is time to hook up the terminal. I set the Televideo 950 to 9600 baud by setting the appropriate switched in the back by the ON/OFF switch, or by hitting SHFT-SETUP and using the arrows to move the cursor to the baud rate and then type T till the baud rate is 9600. Now I connect the terminal to COM2 using the null modem cable. I wired the null modem cable with the following connections: 1 ---- 1 2 ---- 3 IBM 3 ---- 2 TV 950 4 ---- 5 5 ---- 4 6 ---- 20 7 ---- 7 8 nc 8 20 ---- 6 *) When I run DoubleDOS the screen is in the top memory section and the bottom memory section prompt comes up on the terminal. There are some definite limitations to the programs that can be run like this. Programs that write to the screen, like VEDIT, LOTUS, BASIC, BASIC and the like are some such programs. But most if not all of the DOS commands are now available to the second user (bottom section) as well as the first user (top section). Version 11t of Fido can also be run in test mode for BBS maintenance. I would really like to hear from other people who have tried this, and hear what they have done with this. Please direct all comments and inquires to David Melnik 107/33 for a prompt reply. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 11 24 Mar 1986 Larry DiGioia, sysop Fido 129/17 NEVERBOARD, 412-733-4842 - 24 hrs./300/1200/2400 What do sysops do in their spare time? ("Ha!" you say, "Sysops DON'T HAVE any spare time!"). Well, that's certainly true in a way, but before I started running a Fido, I spent most of my spare time enjoying the latest movies, books, TV shows, and occasionally listening to international broadcasts on shortwave radio. As a matter of fact, I consider myself a sort of amateur movie critic. So, when the opportunity to start a BBS presented itself, what better theme to dedicate it to than the above- mentioned subjects? NEVERBOARD is a BBS dedicated to "Entertainment of All Kinds". Like many of you, when I first started calling BBSs, the first messages I entered were on the order of, "Does anyone know what I can do to get my modem to download files"? Then, after that particular problem was solved, and I had downloaded (what I thought was) my fill of games, graphics and other time wasters, I kind of said to myself, "What next"? I believe a BBS should serve some useful function, or else it will turn into the typing equivalent of a circle of grade school friends who have just discovered the telephone: meaningless remarks about things that no one else is interested in, better to be kept private. I see Fido as an important resource that allows people to meet and exchange important information that they would otherwise have no way of finding, at least not in such a timely way. When you see a movie or TV show, or read a book, call NEVERBOARD and leave a message about how you liked it. You will be performing an important service: helping to promote interest in a work of art that other people might otherwise not hear about through unbiased observation. Or you might have the satisfaction of knowing that after they read your comments, others won't have to waste $9.95 on the latest record from a current "Supergroup". We have our technical side, too. The tech and shortwave radio section is a place where you can find hints and help if you would like to get involved in this fascinating hobby. I would like to start a regular mail route for passing on the latest information on stations heard, program schedules, etc. I have just added a 30 meg. drive to help distribute the growing amount of truly high quality public domain software that is making the rounds. We also have informational files on shortwave listening and local broadcast schedules. Just remember: the next time you would like to share your latest discovery of a good book, movie, video- cassette or anything that qualifies as entertainment, CALL NEVERBOARD! If you would like to mail in a review or comment, I will be happy to convert/transfer it to the appropriate area of the board. - Larry DiGioia, sysop 412-733-4842 - Fido 129/17 - NEVERBOARD - 24 hrs./300/1200/2400 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 12 24 Mar 1986 SHUTTLE And so they came to the Melting Pot, All the races of the world, Some with a will and some against their will. They found that the earth beneath their feet Any dream they chose. They chose as their greatest dream Traveling among the stars. They studied and learned and Took from the Earth what they needed to Build their slim dream machines, and they practiced With their machines and sometimes faltered, for no thing made of Atoms, be it man or man-made, can be perfect. But they practiced, and one such practice they held on a Clear, cool, Tuesday morning in January. After some delays, but Still as a routine mission, they sent another dream aloft. Then, high enough and far enough away so no one else was hurt, But close enought so the cameras could see, This piece of the Dream. Spread itself beautifully and violently Across the sky, deceiving those watching, for a moment, Into thinking that all was well. Zues might have worked like this when he placed Orion of Gemini or the Pleides in the Skies. The Pleides (the Seven Sisters), Cluster close together high in the winter sky. Tuesday's constellation has seven stars, But must go by a different name For five were brothers, and two were sisters; These seven came from all the races of the world, And one of the sisters was a teacher of children, A gentle hand, a loving hand, who said, "I take a piece of each of you with me." She spoke to her children in her home stae, and to us all, Because we all identify so strongly with school, With those teachers we valued, And with our years of education, Which built, among other things, this Dream. In a sense, the terrible trails of the falling debris Were changed by having the teacher aboard. We are used to thinking of hardened engineers trained in Cold numbers; this would have been just another cold accident. The teacher added a gentleness, a warnth; making the pieces of Debris more like petals she was giving back to us. Fidonews Page 13 24 Mar 1986 This tiny emmissary of the human species crossed the barrier from Life into Death to be part of a Larger Universe; They remind us of the part of a Larger Universe, Of which we are all a part, even as we breathe, Plays in all our Dreams. Written by Rob Kimmich, a Science Teacher at the Maret School (Fido 109/612) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 14 24 Mar 1986 Al de la Torre FIDO 135/7 In Every Cloud..... I hate to see the unfortunate experience of one person tarnish the reputation of an otherwise outstanding company. From my perspective and firsthand experience, SoftLogic Solutions is a model company. When I first learned about DoubleDOS (over a year ago) it was selling for $99. At that time, and for that price, if it worked I felt it was a fair value for my money. I knew it might not work because I was using a Compaq Deskpro running Compaq's version of MS-DOS, not PC-DOS. But then, as now, SoftLogic had a 30 day return policy, so I went ahead and ordered it. When the package arrived, I was unable to get it to run FIDO in the background so I called their tech support. The friend- liness and earnest attempts to solve the problem really impressed me. Unfortunately the program could not be made to work and after working on it a couple hours with tech support for a few days in a row, I gave up and returned the product for a refund. A few months later two things happened. I heard of a FIDO running under Double Dos and SoftLogic came out with a special deal to purchase two programs: DoubleDOS and Disk Optimizer for $89. Due to my favorable experience with the company in the past I immediately called and placed an order. This time everything worked like a champ. I've been running 135/7 for a long time now with this great product and it is now an indispensable function to be able to do maintenance on the BBS without bringing it down. I feel the company is making great effort to accommodate users. Reducing the price is something that really impresses me. When was the last time Multilink got cheaper? On the point in Neal's article concerning the BBS. All right, so the sysop forgot to install the new password he was given. At least they have a BBS. If they were like most companies you would have to send back your original disk and waited until they sent you a new one. This would take far longer than the 4 days you attempted to get through. Also I'm curious as to why you didn't call their voice number the day after the first password failed. The password changes daily, and it should. They are placing a valuable product in a precarious position. I talked to tech support yesterday (3-6-86) and was told they are putting in extra phone lines and adding more support personnel. I encourage other users of Double Dos to call SoftLogic (603) 644-5555 and say they want the BBS up 24 hrs. Also suggesting they place one person in charge of sysop respon- sibilities might be a good idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 15 24 Mar 1986 Announcing a new FIDO Fido 107/601 (215) 367-6558 SYSOPS Annette Sine-Weilnau Peter Weilnau There is a new FIDO on the East Coast! It's free, public and already has a good assortment of PC and MacIntosh public domain software. So far it's only 20 meg and 1200 baud, but the 2400 will soon be here, and we promise to add more storage when it's needed. What's the catch? There is none, but, we do have a special theme for "Stone Wall". We think that computer technology can be used to help fight some of mankind's basic problems. So, we chose to help with the hunger problem. Now, you might ask "How in the world can a BBS help fight the hunger problem?" We have some ideas that we're going to try, and with your help, we hope to find a lot more ideas in the future. Initially, The Stone Wall BBS will carry information about individuals and small organizations that have come up with noteworthy ideas and methods to help fight hunger. But we we're sure there are many more things a BBS can do to help with these tough problems. So, if you have any ideas how computer tech- nology can help, please share them with us, after all, that's what we're here for! We think that by carrying extensive public domain libraries, we can attract more people - which in turn helps to spread ideas and increase our effectiveness. So any software contributions you can make, will make a big difference. See how easy it is to help! We hope that our public service orientation will help bring credibility to the BBSing community. After all, we sure do need some good press. And your support will contribute to maintaining the freedom that Bulletin Boards enjoy today. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 16 24 Mar 1986 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Notes from Abroad Modems, BELL, and the CCITT standard As distributors of both hardware and software in Scandinavia, my company has put great effort in finding modems to fit our European standard, CCITT. We've sent telexes and called virtually every manufacturer of Modems (Hayes compatible) in the USA. Here are the compiled results, after squeezing the technical support staff of every vendor we've been in touch with: HAYES Hayes is heavily emphasizing their new 2400 bps modem being fully compatible with the European CCITT standard. This is true, because the V22.bis (2400/2400 baud) standard is exactly the same in both the USA and Europe. The only problem (which they incidentally forget to mention) being that the lower baud rates are only available in BELL standard. This means that the money spent on a Hayes modem (approx. $750.00 US, freight included), is a waste. It can only be used for connecting to the US time slot, and will have to be specially set up and plugged in for the time the time slot is active. Also, they are currently working on setting up their European distributor network, and will not or cannot ship overseas. U.S. ROBOTICS Same as for Hayes, only CCITT compatible at V22.bis. VEN-TEL I had my hopes high when I was connected to the tech support people after talking to the sales department: I was told that their modem was CCITT compatible also below 2400/2400. After 3 phone calls and 2 telexes, I finally got the news: It's only compatible on V22 and V22.bis, not V21 (300/300), due to the internal structure of their LSI-chip. Also they do have another modem that's cheaper, without the V22.bis, but that couldn't take V21 either. I tried to explain our situation to them, and was promised that V21 would be implemented in their next revision of the chip. That's so far, we'll have to see. QUBIE QUBIE has been known to take odd ways when designing their products, and I wasn't let down: QUBIE will shortly release a 100% Hayes compatible modem featuring CCITT standards V21 and V22. V22.bis isn't included, but might be sometime in the near future. Fidonews Page 17 24 Mar 1986 The rest of the list isn't really too interesting, just to mention RACAL-VADIC's modems; they aren't on CCITT either... It seems like the US vendors have been blind when designing their modems, not realizing the enormous market in Europe for CCITT. The fact is that the difference between CCITT and BELL is so little that a new ROM for some of the modems, and a little more effort in the LSI-chips for others, wouldn't be too much to expect. As far as I know there are no European manufacturer that can offer modems that are true Hayes-compatible; Accepting the "AT" command set, and autoswitching between baud-rates. The Norwegian TeleCom have been talking about the issue for some time now, but they won't release it for at least another year, if my sources are correct. If you have any comments on this issue, please send mail to: Sysop on 4701/101 - Hackers Unlimited. Address: Hackers Unlimited c/o Hercz Data A/S Huitfeldts Gate 16 N-0253 Oslo 2 Norway Voice +47 2 431 655 Data +47 2 431 840 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 18 24 Mar 1986 ================================================================= WANTED ================================================================= Kirk Finner Fido 143/3 ''' I need YOU! To help me.. P-L-E-A-S-E? ''' *1* Looking for direct user information from people who own the BRIDGE utility diskette for use with PFS: FILE on the APPLE2+ computer. *2* Looking for direct user information from people who own APPLE2+ compatible software packages for GENEOLOGY studies. *3* Looking for direct user information from people who own or can LOCATE APPLE2+ compatible software packages for GRAPHOANALYSIS (PLEASE do not take this request as if someone else will answer it first, ALL answers will be replied to VERY gratefully.) *4* Looking for a deal less than $20 on an RS232 interface card for the APPLE2+ computer. I'll consider buying two and the interface cable is optional. A C.C.S. compatible card is preferd. Baud rates of 50 to 19.2K Settings are a MUST. A short blurp sheet on all possible settings and card programming is also a plus. *5* And last, I'm looking to see if there is an ARC and DE-ARC utility for the APPLE series computer. I'd like to be able to download and unpack the IBM specific TEXT files (the ones that most SYSOPS keep as the FIDONEWS). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 19 24 Mar 1986 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= RUN DIBOL PROGRAMS ON RAINBOW MS-DOS Would you like to be able to run DIBOL programs on your DEC Rainbow or IBM PC? Well you can by running a DBL runtime system. You may purchase DBL runtime system for $99.00. For additional information, send us your name and address to: DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS, INC. BOX 1409 MS-DB NORCROSS, GA 30071 OR SEND FIDO MAIL TO 133/5, OR CONTACT US ON COMPUSERVE 72205,321 OR THE SOURCE MKT053 OR USE THE VOICE PHONE 404 441-7973. DIBOL is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corp. DBL is a trade mark of Digital Information Systems Corp. MS-DOS is a trade mark of Microsoft, Inc. If you don't know what IBM is then your name must be Herb. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 20 24 Mar 1986 ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC! SUPERDOTS! KALAH! Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both exciting games! Please specify version and disk format. These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80, CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but minor customization may be required. BSS Software P.O. Box 3827 Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review. Questions and comments can be sent to: Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17 (609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 21 24 Mar 1986 Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!! Public Domain collection - 300+ "ARC" archives - 10 megs of software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When unpacked, you get approximately 17 megabytes worth of all kinds of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... This collection is the result of more than 10 months of intensive downloads from just about 100 or more BBS's and other sources, all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This is the answer!!! To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check, postal money order or company purchase order) to: Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511 Post Office Box 4296 200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296 Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order. Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines, running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting, cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what we charge for the service... Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be prepared on. The following choices are available: IBM PC-DOS Backup utility Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility DSBackup Fastback Plain ol' files (add $50, though, it's a lot of work and takes more diskettes...) Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges. California residents add 6% tax. For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 22 24 Mar 1986 SEAdog Electronic Mail System Special Offer for FidoNet Sysops System Enhancement Associates, the makers of the popular ARC file archive utility, are proud to announce the release of the SEAdog electronic mail system. SEAdog is a PC-based electronic mail system which is fully FidoNet compatible. In addition to all the functionality of FidoNet mail, SEAdog adds the following: o User directory support, for automatic lookup of node numbers o Return receipts o Audit trails o Message forwarding, with or without a retained copy o Twenty four hour mail reception o High priority mail for immediate delivery o The ability to request files and updates of files from other SEAdog systems. o No route files needed! o A full screen user interface that our beta test sites fell in love with! SEAdog is NOT a bulletin board system, but it can be used as a "front end" for Fido (version 11t), allowing you to add the full functionality of SEAdog to your existing system. SEAdog normally sells for $100/node, but for a limited time only we are offering SEAdog to registered FidoNet sysops for only $35! Orders may be placed by sending a check or money order to: System Enhancement Associates 21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470 Or by calling (201) 473-5153 (VISA and MasterCard accepted). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 23 24 Mar 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= WARNING Fido 11u has a major bug! DO NOT use the sysop "3" command! It causes all commands to be available to all users. Tom Jennings is aware of the problem, and a fix will soon be available. Meanwhile, avoid using the "3" command AT ALL COSTS! ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Interrupt Stack 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you are running Fido with DoubleDOS, please send me FidoMail. I am keep a list DoubleDos nodes that will be posted as message number 1 in my DoubleDOS message area. Oscar Barlow Node 104/56 Alias 1/105 DoubleDOS Help ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 24 24 Mar 1986