Volume 5, Number 47 21 November 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and are used with permission. 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. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 BTBBS .................................................... 1 NEWS_CHECK - A newsletter pre-submission format checker .. 2 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 5 Bodies Behind the BBS: Bill Albritten ................... 5 Rogel's Corner: Automatic Document Assembly Systems ..... 7 Let's YACK about Hard Disk Crashes ....................... 16 3. FOR SALE ................................................. 17 4. NOTICES .................................................. 19 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 19 Latest Software Versions ................................. 19 FidoNews 5-47 Page 1 21 Nov 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= BTBBS? I bet your asking yourself, "what is this BTBBS?". Well I'm glad you asked and heres your answer. BTBBS stands for Borland Turbo Bulletin Board System. It is a BBS that is designed by programmers and sysops with Borland language products like Turbo Pascal/Turbo C. It is starting up as you read this but we do need your help. If you are a programmer and own a copy of either Turbo Pascal 5.0 or Turbo C 2.0 and would like to become part of this project then you must either send netmail to me here or have your NEC in your area request for the echomail for this project. The project will be hosted by 366/200. The echomail should be restricted to only members of the project and sysops of BBS's. We will talk about and design a bbs system using lastest shareware/freeware plus the great products of Borland International. Two different types of systems will be designed, one in Turbo Pascal and the other in Turbo C. Both systems will do about the same as the other but different languages for those to pick their favorite language. Source code of the finished product will be available. If you are interested in joining the project, contact either me at the below address or have your NEC get in touch with me for a link to the BTBBS echomail. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Dale Barnes 366/200 Nec 366 * BTBBS name created by Dennis Fowler 366/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 2 21 Nov 1988 NEWS_CHECK 1.4 by Mike Bartman Fidonet node 1:109/733 Hi there! Ever wanted to have something published in FidoNews, but were put off by the submission requirements? I know they aren't very stringent as to content, but there are a lot of rules for the *format* of submissions. They have to have particular extensions, there are restrictions on right margins, you can't have funny control codes in the file (and how many of us are *sure* that our word processors aren't putting in the occasional "soft" return?), and you should also follow some "appearance" guidelines to make your article look nice (like having most lines flushleft, having most lines get near the 65 column mark, having a table of contents line at the beginning of the article, etc.). It is easy enough to find out what the requirements and recommendations are (just F'Req. ARTSPEC), but it is harder to be sure you have not made some minor mistake, or missed a requirement, or had your word processor "help" you without your knowledge. I suspect that many people have been put off sending in an article more than once for fear of making a mistake, or not wanting to take the time to read ARTSPEC. I know I have been. In net 109 we have a newsletter similar to FidoNews. It is called KLORE (for reasons which have never become obvious), and it is nearly identical to FidoNews in its requirements (mostly because it uses a variant of the same software!), and is subject to the same "learning curve" for new authors. Events occurred in such a way as to make it necessary for me to publish an article in KLORE a few months ago, and I had to learn the guidelines and send in a submission. It went in just fine, but I spent a few days worrying that I had done something wrong, missed a control code, had a bare linefeed or something equally disastrous, and that my article would be rejected and returned for corrections, or, worse, that I would be the cause of the editor having to do extra work to fix my blunders. Being a programmer, and having a copy of Turbo-Pascal 4.0 that I had not used in a while, I decided to write a program to make submitting without fear a little easier. NEWS_CHECK is the result. NEWS_CHECK is intended for use by authors of articles for FidoNews, Klore, and any other compatible newsletters, for pre-submission verification of format. Once you have your article written you just run NEWS_CHECK, give it the name of your file and it will check it for fatal errors as well as non-fatal "aesthetic" errors such as not being flushleft, having too many blank lines at the top of the file, etc. It does not make any changes to your submission file; it just lists errors and suggestions to your screen. It is possible to redirect the messages to a file for reference while editing-in the FidoNews 5-47 Page 3 21 Nov 1988 corrections. NEWS_CHECK will *not* check spelling or grammar! You want miracles you go talk to Borland. NEWS_CHECK looks for the following mistakes or ill-advised practices: 1. Incorrect file name extension. Must be ART, SAL, WAN, COL, or NOT. Any other extension is flagged as a FATAL error. 2. Non-Flushleft margin. Based on a percentage of the lines in the file, not all of them. (If 50% of the lines in a file are not flushleft a WARNING is generated.) 3. Right margin greater than 65 on any line generates a FATAL error. If the line is over 65 characters long, but less than 70, and all characters after column 65 are spaces, then only a WARNING will be generated. This is the only exception to the column 65 limit. 4. "funny characters". Control chars (except CR-LF pairs) result in a FATAL error message. All characters must be in the range 20 hex to 7E hex. 5. If the file is an ad or a notice (SAL, WAN, or NOT) a WARNING is generated if the total length of the submission is over 30 lines. 6. Checks for existence of a "contents" line at the top of the file. Outputs a WARNING if there isn't one. 7. Checks for "dashed lines" at the beginning and end of the file. Dashed lines result in WARNING messages. A "dashed line" is any line consisting of at least 4 of only one type of character (SPACE excepted). "# # # #" is a "dashed line", for example. 8. Checks for excessive "whitespace" at top and bottom of the file. More than 3 blank lines at the front or end of the file generates a WARNING message. 9. Checks for articles that are "too narrow" (have the right margin set to too low a value). If over 50% of the lines in a submission don't reach at least column 55 a WARNING is generated. There are times when narrowness is fine, but most articles should have the right margin at 65 for the best appearance after publication. NEWS_CHECK is designed so that it may be run from a BAT file, and returns ERRORLEVEL codes to allow a determination of what happened with the check. An example BAT file is included, as are several test files that contain errors of various kinds, and a (short) documentation file. The program is available for file request from 1:109/733, and possibly from other places by now, as NEWSCHEK.ARC. If you have FidoNews 5-47 Page 4 21 Nov 1988 any suggestions for improvement, or reports of problems I would appreciate hearing about them, but I can't guarantee that I will include all of them (though I will try). If you publish a FidoNews-like newsletter, but prefer other parameters for things like margins, number of blank lines to allow, length of ads, etc. please let me know. It is easy enough to generate a custom version with these things changed. The current settings have been Okayed by Dale Lovell (FidoNews) and Mike Mahoney (Klore). There is no charge for use of this software. * * * * Copyright Notice and disclaimer: The program and documentation are Copyright 1988 by Mike Bartman. All rights are reserved. Permission is granted to anyone to distribute the documentation and software, provided that no alterations are made to either, and no charge is made for the distribution or the software. No warrantee or guarantee of any kind is implied or stated. You use it at your own risk. The program has functioned on my 10mhz AT Clone with no trouble, but this is no guarantee of future behavior. * * * * Good luck and happy writing! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 5 21 Nov 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Steve Bonine 115/777 An Introduction of Bill Albritten (11/301) Bill Albritten was my first experience with a Region Coordinator. You know how it goes -- when you first join FidoNet, the Network Coordinator is a pretty imposing figure, and if the Network Coordinator does his job reasonably well you may not know about anyone at a higher level for quite some time. Finally, after quite a while in FidoNet, I realized that there was something bigger than a net. In fact, at that time Region 11 was HUGE -- it covered much of the central US and a big chunk of Canada. Things were calm and quiet, though. . . and that's a reflection on Bill Albritten, who is calm and quiet and capable. Bill is the director of the Counceling and Testing Center at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. Bill holds a Ph.D. from the University of Northern Colorado, and has been involved in mental health for the past fifteen years. That is an enviable background for dealing with the personalities in the SYSOP echomail conference! An undergraduate education in math sparked Bill's interest in computers and bulletin boards. Combining two interest areas, Bill started a FidoNet BBS in late 1985. The system had a mental health and human services thrust, as well as general support of MS-DOS, Apple DOS, Tandy 100, and the C-64. Bill is the coordinator for the CUSSnet echo, but before anyone gets bent out of shape about a pornographic echomail conference, it is Computer Users in the Social Sciences. His system currently maintains file areas pertaining to AIDS, information for the disabled, substance abuse, and other mental health and social service concerns. In addition to his stint as region-11 coordinator, Bill also serves on the IFNA Board as the region 11 representative. As he puts it, "I view BBS's as a way of disseminating information to many groups not always well served by traditional media." He has written articles and presented at conferences on the use of BBS technology in this regard. Bill is married to a professor of social work at Murray State, and has a two year old daughter who competes with him for the use of the computer. Bill and his wife share research interests in the areas of spouse abuse, courtship violence, and other types of family violence. Maybe that's why Bill is drawn to FidoNet -- it's just one big happy family. Bill usually ends his messages with "Best, Bill." I'll end this by wishing him the same. Thanks, Bill, for your quiet presence FidoNews 5-47 Page 6 21 Nov 1988 and effective help in making FidoNet a better place for all of us. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 7 21 Nov 1988 ROGEL'S CORNER: GETTING INTO HIGH GEAR WITH GPS AND OVERDRIVE ============================================================= AUTOMATIC DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY: BACKGROUND ======================================== The ability to assemble documents by computer is to business persons and professionals who must do a considerable amount of writing what spreadsheets are to accountants and other number crunchers. Automatic document assembly, at its most basic level, is creating a document, whether it be a simple "thank you" letter or a complex contract. Obviously a number of documents we create are repetitive in nature. Rather than waste time rewriting the same old stuff, we looked for ways to create a form out of repetitive documents and leave blanks for the information that would change each time we used that form. Before the computer became commonplace, we might run off photocopies of our favorite forms and fill in the blanks with information from a separate document or list containing the variable information. As our office equipment became more sophisticated, we were able to have our mag cards merge our variable information with our forms. Of course, this was a slow and cumbersome process and otherwise suffered from the limitations placed upon us by typewriter technology. Then the personal computer came along and made our life a whole lot easier and more efficient. Creation of the forms and the variable information (and corrections or changes thereto) was a snap. The better word processing programs featured "mail merge", allowing us to quickly produce complex documents which appeared to be custom made but were actually the product of merging our forms and our variable information. Computerized merging has been a significant productivity advance but it has not been without its problems. We don't use this otherwise great tool as often as we should because of the difficulty both in learning how to merge by computer (i.e., what codes are required to create an electronic form, what key combinations are required to produce the merged document) and in actually creating and using the forms and variable data files. These difficulties have also discouraged uniform merge applications by co-workers, with the result being that offices fail to standardize the forms they use. COMPUTERIZED DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY ============================== Fortunately, help is on its way. In the great tradition advancing the technological revolution, there are numerous public domain and shareware programs which make the merge process just a little bit easier. Usually these programs FidoNews 5-47 Page 8 21 Nov 1988 include a couple of forms (which you can alter to fit your needs) and a data-entry method (it asks a question, such as "Name", and you type in the answer); these programs typically insert the merge codes into both the form and the variable data you have entered. +=================================================+ | GENERAL PRACTICE SYSTEMS VERSIONS 420 AND 500 | +=================================================+ The most sophisticated of these shareware document assembly programs which I have had the pleasure of reviewing is General Practice Systems (GPS), a WordPerfect-oriented program by Professor Richard T. Rodgers of Campbell Law School. GPS is available for both WordPerfect 4.2 and 5.0 as GPS420.ARC or GPS500.ARC, respectively. This excellent multiple-document assembly program can be obtained by downloading by registered members ($25/year; lawyers, only) of Professor Rodgers' BBS, Frolic & Detour For Lawyers [919- 893-5206]. Anyone can obtain this program via mail by sending a written request together with $5 per 360k disk + $2 s/h, to: Richard T. Rodgers Diskette Ordering Service Electronic Law Publishing Co. Post Office Box 1119 Buies Creek, NC 27506-1119 GPS offers two sample forms and a questionnaire which, when completed, contains the appropriate variable data for the completion of these forms. To produce a merged document, you simply hit -M from within WordPerfect to load GPS, select the desired form from the GPS menu and then provide the file name you just gave the variable-data file. Presto, instant document. GPS is made up of WordPerfect macros and merges. Users who are familiar with these features of the leading word processing program can make modifications to suit their needs. You may also create data files for use with any GPS form. GPS will take your selection of form file and data file and merge the two. This is an extremely efficient means of automated document assembly since, after you spent the time initially setting up your data and form files, a merged document is just a few keystrokes away. GPS would be even nicer if it included a menu of your data files so that you would not have to remember the names of your data files in order to take advantage of this powerful feature. As long as you use the GPS forms and the questionnaire for those forms, you need not worry about merge codes, field FidoNews 5-47 Page 9 21 Nov 1988 identifiers, etc. because GPS will take care of these technicalities for you. But what if you want to use your own forms -- a likely possibility since only two forms are included -- and, consequently, you also need to use your own questionnaire? Well, unless you are fairly knowledgeable about WordPerfect in general as well as its merge process and its macro features, you might have problems. Rogel's Wrap-Up +======================================================+ | Product: | | Generic Practice Systems Versions 420 and 500 by| | Professor Richard T. Rodgers | | Price: | | Professor Rodgers requests a $25 contribution. | | See above for information about obtaining GPS | | (GPS420.ARC or GPS500.ARC by downloading from | | Professor Rodgers' BBS, Frolic & Detour for | | Lawyers or by ordering a copy of the program on | | disk for $5 + $2 s/h. | | Product description: | | GPS is a document assembly program based upon | | WordPerfect merges and macros. | | System Requirements: | | WordPerfect (apparently any version) | | Comments: | | A good shareware program which requires some | | familiarity with WordPerfect in order to | | realize its true productivity-potential. | | For more information, contact: | | I am unaware of any formal customer-support or | | sales office but if you are a lawyer, you could | | leave a message for Professor Rodgers on his BBS| | or send him a note at his address set out in the| | review above. | +======================================================+ +=========================+ | OVERDRIVE VERSION 1.1 | +=========================+ For those of you who are not as technologically inclined, take a look at OverDrive Version 1.1 by TurboSoft. OverDrive is a sophisticated and relatively easy to use WordPerfect-oriented document assembly program. OverDrive comes with 50 legal forms and over 20 sample forms and letters. When ever you select one of these forms for merging, you will be presented with an appropriate questionnaire. The forms and questionnaires are already merge coded. You may add your own forms but this is somewhat complex. You must insert field identifiers (i.e., "F1", "F2"), into the form you wish to add; then complete an electronic questionnaire by telling OverDrive what type of information FidoNews 5-47 Page 10 21 Nov 1988 will be substituted for the field identifiers during the merge process (i.e., "addressee's name"); and then add the name of your newly added form to OverDrive's Library, described below. From the information you have given OverDrive, it will automatically create a questionnaire, with the merge codes inserted. There is a context-sensitive help screen available on OverDrive. You can also use OverDrive to easily print an office documents manual, containing the Library table of contents, reference files, each document, and the Document NotePad Window. This will provide users with a simple means of standardizing office forms and training new and old employees as to how these forms. OverDrive Merge Operation: Pick, Enter, & Print ------------------------------------------------ To assemble a document, you go through OverDrive's "Pick, Enter, & Print" process. (1) Pick First, you "pick" or select a form for your merger from the OverDrive Library. The Library contains up to 5 volumes; each volume may contain 5 chapters; and each chapter contains a maximum of 50 documents, for a total of 1250 documents. Figure "1" below displays documents from the "Personnel" Chapter of the "Legal" Volume. FIGURE "1": Display of Library Volume, Chapter, and Documents {tsr: modified to fit FidoNews format} +==================================================+ | (c)1988 TurboSoft(tm)(V.1.1) MIDAS Technology(tm)| +---------------- Volumes -------------------------+ volumes | Legal Sample Forms Open Open Open | +--------------------- Chapters -------------------+ chapters | Personnel Real Est Wills & Trust Commer Corp | +--------------------------------------------------+ documents| PERS101 Offer of Employment | | PERS102 Employment Agreement | | PERS103 Employee Confidentiality and Invention| | Agreement | | PERS104 Non-competition Agreement | | PERS105 #10 Business Envelope, for Employee | | PERS106 9 x 12 envelope, Horizontal Address, | | for Employee | | PERS107 Personnel Memo | | PERS108 Request for Reference | | PERS109 Employee Benefit Letter | | PERS110 Independent Contractor Agreement | | PERS111 Cover letter, Independent Contractor | | PERS112 #10 Business Envelope, for Independent| FidoNews 5-47 Page 11 21 Nov 1988 | Contractor | +--------------------------------------------------+ |Help | |3<-)To Select< >[ENTER] Prior Menu Done | +==================================================+ You may navigate through OverDrive's Library by cursor or by using the hot key method (i.e., pressing the highlighted letter of your destination area). To assist you in your selection of a form, a "Document NotePad Window" is available at the press for each form in the Library. These windows describe the form to which they are attached and can be easily edited to include notes on other forms that should be considered in combination with or in lieu of the form under examination. You may easily attach a Document NotePad Window to forms you add to the Library. OverDrive offers a convenient feature for selecting the same combination of forms you use repeatedly. A food wholesaler, for example, may typically combine the "Independent Contractor Agreement", "Cover letter, Independent Contractor", and "#10 Business Envelope, for Independent Contractor" in Figure "1" above for use with route distributors. To avoid having to constantly select this same combination of forms, he could create a "reference file" with the press of one key and subsequently "pick" this reference file for immediate use of this combination of forms. (2) Enter Once you have completed the "pick" process, you are presented with a questionnaire. It is at this point that you "enter" the variable data. The questions you must answer appear on the left margin and additional information appears at the bottom of your screen with respect to the question highlighted by your cursor. You can easily scroll through the questionnaire to change or re-examine any of your answers. (3) & Print Once you have accepted your answers to the questionnaire, you move from the OverDrive menu into WordPerfect. At this point, you are instructed to type -O. A new OverDrive menu pops up and gives you the opportunity to review the merged documents, edit the merged documents, or print the merged documents. OverDrive Test Drive -------------------- I decided to try a merge with one of the legal forms included with OverDrive. In order to see how easy/intuitive OverDrive really is, I only gave the manual a cursory examination. FidoNews 5-47 Page 12 21 Nov 1988 After typing "OD" I was greeted by the main menu. One of the options was to "Select a Document" and as this seemed to be the most logical choice, I plunged ahead. Then I had to decide which "volume" I wanted (I chose "legal") and, then, which "chapter" (I chose "Wills & Trusts"). At this point the documents in the selected chapter were displayed; one of those documents was a simple will. The "help" screen informed me that I could find out more about this document by pressing f10, which I did, and now I knew I that this was the form I wanted. So far, so good. At this point it was not apparent what I should do to proceed forward with the merge process. Fortunately, the "help" screen informed me about my options and I was able to go on to the "enter" phase. The entry screen is an attractively designed and easy to use questionnaire. When I completed that phase, I opted for the "save" feature, per the menu. Finally I found myself in WordPerfect and would have been worried about what to do next, were it not for the brief on-screen message to type -O. At this point, I was given the option to review the merged will. After some minor editing -- which was not really necessary-- I had a finished product. The entire process of selecting the form, entering the necessary data, and finalizing the merged document was easy and it took only a few minutes! OverDrive Problems ------------------ As impressed as I am with OverDrive, I do have a few complaints, as follows: 1. Adding forms to OverDrive is somewhat cumbersome. This is particularly unfortunate since OverDrive's potential is not as just another electronic forms package -- there are many of those and at a lot lower price -- but rather as a sophisticated means of putting your data together with documents you frequently use. This means that for the program to really shine, you will have to add your own forms. Some of the problems I experienced in adding forms to the Library are set out below: (a) Identifying and designating the variable information in the form: OverDrive requires you to twice describe the type of variable information you will use for a particular form (i.e., "F1" is for "addressee's name & address"). You must first describe your variable information on paper while inserting code into your form where your data will later go-- unless you are not concerned whether you might FidoNews 5-47 Page 13 21 Nov 1988 forget what information goes where. This information must be entered again into OverDrive's "New Field Entry Window". A convenient alternative would be to have access to a pop up "New Field Entry Window", while you are preparing a form to be added to the Library, so that you would only have to enter this information one time. (b) Naming your newly added form: When naming your newly created document, you must include the full OverDrive Library path (i.e., volume\chapter\document). No problem so far. But then to actually add your newly created form to the OverDrive Library, you must go to the appropriate Library chapter and again enter the file name. For a program designed to save you the bother of entering the same information more than once, the repetitive information-entry requirements for creating new forms is perplexing, at best. 2. Storing/using data files: My practice requires that I often use the same data, such as a client's name and address, repeatedly. Today I may need that information for a letter, tomorrow for a legal document, and so on. I need an automatic document assembly system which allows me to enter my data one time only and then be able to later merge that information with my forms. Unfortunately OverDrive does not have this capability. It can save the data you entered when merging with a particular form, if you wish to subsequently merge using that same form. But that's it. OverDrive's inability to store variable information for use with all the forms in its Library means that I would not find this program useful in my professional practice. On the other hand, this limitation is insignificant for those who do not need to use the same data repeatedly. TurboSoft also informs me that they are aware of this limitation and will probably address it with their next release (date unknown). 3. The transition between the "pick", "enter", and "print" phases is unpolished: You are not automatically taken from the "pick" phase to the "enter" phase. With the use of the help screen and some educated guessing, I was able to make the transition but it should have been either automatic or else the commands should have been more FidoNews 5-47 Page 14 21 Nov 1988 intuitive. Indeed, when I chose one post-pick option, "review", it seemed as if nothing had happened. Only later, after taking a look at the manual, did I discover that I should have exited from OverDrive and entered into WordPerfect where I could invoke OverDrive's -O macro review the document I had just selected. This seems to have been unnecessarily complicated. Similarly, once you have completed the "enter" phase, you are dropped into WordPerfect, itself. The only clue you have as to what to do next in order to print your merged document is a brief message on the screen to enter -O. If you follow the message, you are presented with a relatively easy-to-follow print menu. I cannot imagine why OverDrive forces you to go through this follow-the-crumbs method rather than cause its print menu to automatically appear upon completion of the "enter" phase. 4. Limitation on number of reference files and Library volumes, chapters, and forms: Granted that 100 reference files as well as Library volumes and chapters, with a capacity for 1,250 forms appears to provide substantial capacity. However, for a large office, this limitation might adversely affect the program's utility. OverDrive's network version will have a 125,000 form capacity. Greater capacity should be added to the single-user version, as well. It would be unfair to OverDrive to end this column up with a discussion of its shortcomings. On balance, this program offers an excellent productivity tool for those who repeatedly use the same type of documents and where the variable information is not, itself, repetitive. Rogel's Wrap-Up +======================================================+ | Product: OverDrive Version 1.1 | | Price: | | Lists for $99.95 | | Product description: | | Automatic document assembly program for use with| | WordPerfect. Program contains 50 legal forms | | and over 20 sample forms and letters; you can | | add your own forms. Network version available; | | OS2/Windows versions soon to be released. Not | | copy protected. | | System Requirements: | | IBM-PC, XT, AT & compatibles; WordPerfect Ver. | | 4.x or 5.0; DOS Ver. 2.x or higher; hard disk | | with approx. 1 MB free storage space; 512K+ | | memory; printer. | | Comments: | FidoNews 5-47 Page 15 21 Nov 1988 | This is another good document assembly program. | | There are some problems, particularly in terms | | of its inability to store repetitive variable | | information, such as client names and addresses,| | but future versions of this program are expected| | to address these problems. | | For more information, contact: | | TurboSoft, a division of Turbo Law Laboratories,| | Inc., 23811 Chagrin Boulevard, Suite 260, | | Cleveland, Ohio (800) 284-7600, (216) 292-3425; | | technical support: (216) 292-3410 | +======================================================+ Sincerely, Todd Rogel September 9, 1988 Raleigh, North Carolina Office 828-1396 Home 851-2103 MMS 779-6674 [150/102] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 16 21 Nov 1988 YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 17: Hard Disk Crashes Well, this is nothing new for those who've been in the computer field as long as (or longer than) I have. But it's educational when it happens to you. I just went down for a week. Wasn't supposed to be a big deal. I took out my old hard disk controller and put in a new one. I own a 20Meg and a 40Meg drive but the old controller would only use a 615/4 (20Meg) drive, so a friend of mine with the same disk set swapped his 20 for my 40 while I waited to get a controller. So I was running fine under the old MFM format on 40Meg and biding my time. A deal came up I couldn't refuse on an RLL controller. Time to upgrade, right? For those not familiar with the hardware terms, MFM (whatever it stands for) format is the NORMAL way to use a hard drive. If you have a 10, 20, 40 or 140 Meg hard drive then you probably run MFM and don't know it...but you don't NEED to know it so who cares? If you are running a 30 or 60 Meg drive, you are probably running RLL, and might even realize it. RLL stands for "Run-Length Limited" coding. What does it mean to the inside of the disk? I have no clue. It gives you about 26 sectors per track instead of the usual 17 on a hard disk and therefore usually gives you 150% the storage in the same amount of space. Something is obviously getting packed in tighter, hence the higher standards on certification usually required. Funny thing, though, it fools your system into - no, not thinking it has 26 sectors per track, but rather that it has more tracks. A 'normal' 20 Megger which has 615 cylinders and 4 heads (615/4) becomes a 1024/4 drive. Strange. Anyway, neither of the disks were RLL-certified. So I knew I was taking a risk. Well, the 20 couldn't take it. It formatted fine but within 24 hours of each time it went operational it would start coming up with "Sector Not Found"s and "General Error Reading"s. Even when it was the second drive it ended up causing the first one to go bad. I haven't figured THAT one out yet. Things were going badly with the drive and at work and at home so I put the computer aside and worked in the garage for two days. Built shelves and whatnot. Came back, took out the 20 and amazingly, EagleTech BBS came back up with 64 Meg of online. Anybody got a cheap PC I can throw a spare controller and 20 in? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 17 21 Nov 1988 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= COMPUTER STUFF FOR SALE TURBO PASCAL version 4.0: Complete with all original disks and manual, which is in excellent condition. Best offer over $40. Pascal's an excellent language for the advanced beginner to highly advanced programmer, and Turbo Pascal adds a number of handy features. CROSSTALK XVI ver. 3.61: The standard communications software of the business world, Crosstalk has the greatest user base of any commercial communications software package. Emulates a wide variety of terminals, and has an easy-to-learn script language that can completely automate your communications sessions. This package listed for $195, but I'm only asking $50 for it, and it's complete with the original diskette and manual, which is in excellent condition. THE SOURCE: User's guide. The Source is one of the business world's premiere commercial database services, and this guide shows you how to get the information you need quickly, without incurring high online charges. They charge $25 for this... I'm asking $5.00. F-15 STRIKE EAGLE from Microprose: Comes complete with original disk and manual, also in excellent condition, AND an extra backup diskette from Microprose (this game incorporates very tough copy protection and cannot be copied with CopyIIPC). Best offer over $15. PROGRAMMING THE 8086/8088 by James W. Coffron, published by Sybex Books. This 312 page paperback volume gives one an inside view of the workings of the CPU controlling the IBM PC, the AT&T 6300, IBM PS/2 Model 30, and many more "compatibles". Originally $16.95, I'm asking $8.00. PCDOS TIPS AND TRAPS: Published by McGraw-Hill, this 211 page paperback volume is in excellent condition, and covers lots of little-known features of DOS. It was originally $16.95. Asking $7.00 HOW TO GET FREE SOFTWARE by Alfred Glossbrenner (the king of online services): This 435 page paperback volume originally sold for $14.95. Asking $5.00. KAREL THE ROBOT by Richard E. Pattis: My Pascal instructor at the University of Maryland said that this was the finest beginner's introduction to programming in Pascal ever written. This 100 page paperback volume takes a total beginner from a fear of computers to a confident beginning programmer in a matter of eight hours or so. The book went for $15.25. Asking $10.00 FidoNews 5-47 Page 18 21 Nov 1988 For any of these items, please send netmail to George Falcon at 109/648. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 19 21 Nov 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 23 Nov 1988 25th Anniversary of "Dr. Who" - and still going strong 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90b EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.32* Fido 12i MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M XlaxNode 2.22 MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 2.00 XlaxDiff 2.22 TPB Editor 1.21* QuickBBS 2.03 ParseList 1.20 TCOMMail 1.1* TPBoard 4.2* TMail 8810 TComm/TCommNet 3.2* UFGATE 1.0 Lynx 1.10* D'Bridge 1.10 FrontDoor 2.0 * 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 5-47 Page 20 21 Nov 1988 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 1:147/1 13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5 15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1 16 Vince Perriello 1:141/491 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871 18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24 19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 21 21 Nov 1988 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________________ State ________________________________ Zip _____________________ Country _________________________________________________________ Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________ BBS Name ________________________________________________________ BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________ Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________ Board Restrictions ______________________________________________ Your Special Interests __________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in US Funds to: International FidoNet Association PO Box 41143 St Louis, Missouri 63141 USA Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to insure the future of FidoNet. Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the membership in January 1987. The second elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-47 Page 22 21 Nov 1988 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we can make no written guarantees. Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986 IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ SUBTOTAL _____ IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____ Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member International orders include $10.00 for surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____ SUBTOTAL _____ MO. Residents add 5.725% Sales Tax _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS: International FidoNet Association PO Box 41143 St Louis, Mo. 63141 USA Name________________________________ Zone:Net/Node____:____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------