FidoNews · Vol 3, No 41 · 27 October 1986
Volume 3, Number 41 27 October 1986
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| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
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| (jm) |
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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
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1.
Copyright (C) 1986, 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.
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. ARTICLES
Fidonews Archived for the Commodore 64
FidoNet - One Users Opinion
PrintQ - a Very Superior Way to Print
Putting 640K on a 64K/256K Xt MotherBoard
2. COLUMNS
The Nautical View: Part 1
3. WANTED
SEAdog Mail Defaults Changed
4. FOR SALE
DataCare Hard Disk Utility
5. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
West Coast Link for SFFAN Group
Fidonews Page 2 27 Oct 1986
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Mike Gordon
MemphisNet
123/6
1-901-353-4563
Fidonews Archived for the Commodore Sixty Four
Jerry Hindle (Sysop of Space Station Earth Fido) and I would
like to invite all system operators to provide another service
to their non-IBM users.
The Space Station Earth (1-901-353-4563) will be carrying ALL
Fido Newsletters archived with CBM ARC 134. This is a new
utility program developed by Ampere Metal and released to the
public as Shareware. Arc V1.34 is very similar to the MS-DOS
version but, unfortunately, NOT compatable (too bad). I have
been told it will do almost everything its big brother will,
though I do not have the capability to conferm this for
myself.
As a test, I archived two FidoNews files totaling 313 CBM
blocks (a CBM block is 255 bytes). The resultant combined file
was only ten blocks longer than one of the individual files
(186 blocks to be exact). This represents a substantial
savings of disk space reguardless of which type, and a
substancialy reduced download time for each file (especially if
your users are using 300 baud).
The authors of CBM Arc have promised to keep the program upward
compatable, so that an archive created with version 1.34 may be
unpacked with later versions. I believe that version 2.2 is
already released. I will continue to use version 1.34 to
create these FidoNews Archives because of this compatability.
Another feature of CBM ARC is that once the file is downloaded
your users will be able to read the news without printing it or
de-arc'ing it. Arc allows its user to print a file within an
archive to the SCREEN!
As of this writing, there are about thirty five newsletters
currently available in CBM ARC form from the Station. ALL will
be available as soon as time permits. Unfortunately, it takes
time to download the old files, achive them, and upload the arc
file back to the Station.
I try to have the current weeks newsletter uploaded in CBM ARC
form by Wednesday of each week, but if you are polling long
distance, I suggest you wait until Friday mornings national
mail slot. All CBM ARC FidoNews files will carry the file name
Fidonews Page 3 27 Oct 1986
of fn***cbm.arc. (*** is the current week) They are available
from the FidoNews File area on the Space Station.
I am committed to Commodore and to FidoNet. I believe both can
work together. I hope this service will "bear fruit" for both
you as a sysop and your users.
Finally, please take a moment to pay for your shareware. The
Commodore 64 File Archive Utility and Text Editor is a
copyrighted program by Ampere Metal. The program has been
released to the public as shareware and is also available from
the Space Station in the alternate computer file area. Users
of CBM ARC are asked to make a modest contribution to:
Ampere Metal
80 Hale Road Unit 4
Brampton, Ontario
Canada, L6W-3M1
Fidonews Page 4 27 Oct 1986
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Fidonews Page 5 27 Oct 1986
Mike Gordon
Fido 123/6
FidoNet One Users Opinion
I am a user of the Space Station Earth Fido (1-901-353-4563)
here in Memphis, Tenn. and it seems to me some things about
FidoNet and IFNA have been left unsaid. I propose here to
explore some of these things.
Probably the most important thing which I believe is being
overlooked and is the purpose of running a Fido BBS System or
any other one for that matter.
I believe most sysop's will agree with me that the purpose of
their boards are to SERVE THEIR USERS! This is one of the most
unselfish things that one human being can do for another.
After all most FIDO boards represent an investment of well over
two thousand dollars and in some cases this investment tops the
ten thousand dollar mark just for the machinery to operate the
board! So my hat is off to ALL you Sysop's who toil long and
hard to keep your boards running smoothly! That said now on to
the meat of the situation.
What should be the main thrust of IFNA?
Opinion - The bottom line is to SERVE THE USERS! How you ask?
I believe the most basic necessity to serve is COMMUNICATION!
After all, what is the first thing that is done during a civil
emergency? Simply to establish the best communications
possible. IFNA has growing pains in this area. As a user who
reads the FidoNews(tm) each week, I have been concerned over
several things regarding the bickering over IFNA. First,
until recently I never heard of ANY of the officers of this
net. It seems to me the Fido community has the tools (meaning
the newsletter) to keep everyone (not just sysops) informed as
to what is going on in "St. Louis" and everywhere else for that
matter. My question is why haven't the "boys in St. Louis"
taken the time before now to write at least a monthly insert in
the news telling everyone what is going on? Please do not take
offense at my using the term "boys in St. Louis" because it is
not used in a negative way. I simply do not want to take the
space to mention everyone by name (most I don't know anyway).
Secondly, I have not read very many articles from just plain
users of FIDO on the subject of IFNA . It does take some time
to sit down at your system and write an article, but it is well
worth it! We live in a society that is founded on freedom in
whatever form. Freedom demands that you are important! Your
ideas are IMPORTANT! After all, you may have the answer that
everyone has been looking for! What is the readership of this
newsletter? Someone estimated 300,000. Whether high or low, I
know there are a lot more people out there with opinions and
CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Take a few minutes and write it down for
all to hash over, Please?
How should the money collected by IFNA be spent?
Fidonews Page 6 27 Oct 1986
Opinion - This is not as tough a question to answer if a little
logic is involved. In FidoNews 337, Ken Kaplan stated that his
phone bills run around 400 dollars a month to support the net.
How many of you reading this article would be willing to spend
FOUR HUNDRED dollars a month of YOUR OWN MONEY to do this job
(and it is a JOB!). Ken, a personal note to you - You have my
deep and sincere gratitude for your efforts. Again, the bottom
line is the money should be used to defray the cost of running
the net. I consider phone bills a MAJOR part of the cost of
running this net! I believe that part of the money collected
from USERS(annual fee), should be sent to support the network.
If that means increasing the Fido annual fee by five or ten
dollars so be it. Let us all realize that the "boys in St.
Louis" have labored long and hard to keep this net going and
deserve much better treatment than I have read in the last few
weeks!! After all, there would not be a net without them!
How should the money collected by IFNA be administered?
Opinion - I believe there should be a Treasurer. Not that I
distrust anyone, but look at almost all other organizations. I
doubt that you will find very many of them that do not use a
treasurer. It merely provides a central point for disbursement
of general funds. Some people have advanced the idea that only
annual reports need be made. I disagree with this idea. I
think that treasurer reports generated at the very least
quarterly are in order. Further, these reports should be
published in the newsletter to provide the easiest access to
this information by general users. Yes, I said users because
this information should be available to ALL.
Should IFNA be a democratic organization or not?
Opinion - I say YES, with qualifications. Fido Software
already provides the means to this end - The Questionaire. The
qualification is that maybe there needs to be a utility program
written to provide a voting questionnaire to only IFNA members
when they log on the their favorite board. Alternately, perhaps
the voting should only be handled by the host of each net. On
further thought, if all voting was handled by the host then
there would not be any question as to one man one vote (someone
would not be able to vote more than once on separate boards).
If the general consensus is that IFNA should be a service
organization then ok, but there should be some method of
"checks and balances". By this I mean, every officer should be
accountable to the general membership for "questionable"
expenses (is paranoia setting in?).
I have typed long enough, its your turn now. It's three o'clock
in the morning(sound familiar?). Discussion and/or rebuttal
can be sent to me at Fido 123/6.
Mike Gordon
Commodore 64 User Forever!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 7 27 Oct 1986
Robert A. Rudolph
Fido 109/628
PrintQ - a Printer Spooler without Peer
Mainframers have known for many years that spooling slower input
and output led to efficiencies in operation and better control
over some forms of output. As a long-time Mainframer, I have
only recently entered the world of micros, and have found that,
while they are good for lots of things (like running Fido), the
available printer support was not all that I would have hoped.
At least that is how it was until last week, when I ordered and
installed PrintQ. Prior to this time I have suffered with either
DOS Print or something that the various software packages have
had to print documentation (usually not much more than a TYPE
command redirected), and have been rather frustrated with the
shortcomings of all these approaches.
I had also tried a few RamDisk based "spoolers", and discovered
that, while they did work after a fashion, restartability (when
one kid tripped over the power cord) and capacity left a LOT to
be desired, and I never did find one that had what I considered
adequate forms control.
PrintQ does not use tons of memory. PrintQ does not interfere
with (and is not interfered with by) Fido. PrintQ can store up
to 64 MEGAbytes of printout (should you want to be that silly).
PrintQ starts up at autoexec and just works - it even handles
the PrtSc function gracefully, and is clever enough that it can
spool PrintShop output and reproduce it up to 255 copies.
PrintQ will keep various reports or other outputs separated by
form type, and understands that not all forms are created equal
in length. You can View a listing to determine if you really
want to Print it. You can force queue entry number 47 to be the
next item printed. You can simply leave your printer off for a
while and nothing will get lost. You can output to ASCII files
(PrintQ keeps its output highly compressed to save your precious
disk space) anything that could have been printed. If you run a
business, you can maintain a PrintQ queue for each business so
reports and forms don't get mixed.
You can even just install it and ignore it - it will let your
programs run faster as they now will not have to wait on the
printer, and it will never hit a queue limit of 32 files, as
will DOS print. Furthermore if you run mostly unattended, you
can be sure that your listings are good - if you get a paper
jam, you just clear it and tell PrintQ to start at the top of
the last page you can read. You can even tell it to print its
reports and then HOLD them so if one gets lost it is reprint
time but not rerun time. It can even handle cut sheet stationery
and be told to pause before each new page so you can do forms
setup for each new page.
Fidonews Page 8 27 Oct 1986
It costs around $90, but is worth every nickel - once you have
had it for half a day you'll wonder what you ever did before,
and you will probably make all your friends MISERABLE because
they won't have it. Yet.
In short, it does the things us mainframers have come to expect
from print spoolers, does them quickly and well with less over-
head than DOS Print, and can do GOOD THINGS for output quality
and rerun reduction. Try it for 30 days from SDI - if you find
it does not do all these things send it back - they'll refund
the cost.
Oh yes - one last thing - no copy protection schemes to make
backup hard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 9 27 Oct 1986
Bob Dallis
The LAST RESORT BBS
Chattanooga, TN FIDO 18/16
(615) 892-7773 1200/2400
Putting 640K on a 64K/256K Xt MotherBoard
I recently got my first IBM computer. It is a PC/XT and it came
with 256k. I got my hands on a copy of an IBM internal Forem from
their employee bulletin board system. It contained a discussion
which ran over the period of a year and a half. The discussion
centered around how to get 640k on a 64k/256k XT motherboard.
After many attempts they were successful. This modification is
not documented or supported by BIG BLUE, but it works, and it
looks as if it were pre-planned. The following simple
modification took me about 45 minutes when I finally got the
knowledge and parts necessary.
1. Remove the cover and motherboard. The motherboard is
held down by a couple of screws, and some slide
fasteners. Remove the screws, slide the board to the left
until it releases and lift out. Be sure to remove all
cards and unplug the power supply before trying to remove
the motherboard.
2. Place a 74LS158 in the only open socket on the board. It
is socket U84 and is near the left floppy drive when
installed.
3. Solder a jumper between 1 and 2 on jumper pad E2. The
jumper pad is normally near the power supply, and this is
why the motherboard should be removed to do the
modification.
4. Set dip switches 3 and 4 to the off position.
5. Remove the ram from banks 0 and 1 marked on the board and
insert 256k dynamic rams, 41256, in their place. the
board should now have 41256 rams in banks 0 and 1 and
4164 (64k) rams in banks 2 and 3.
6. Put the machine back together and power up with 640k.
NOTE. This will not work with the PC. It works with the 64k/256k
XT board only. That means that it will also work on the portable,
because it has the same board. I can't promise that your luck
will be as good as mine, or that you won't damage something while
doing the modification. The modification will surely void your
warranty also. All I can say is that the modification works
flawlessly for me.
Good luck,
Bob Dallis
DISCLAIMER: IBM Corp. does not indorse this article or have any
Fidonews Page 10 27 Oct 1986
link to the author. The author does not take any responsibly to
any damages that you may encounter while performing this
modification.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 11 27 Oct 1986
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
Jerry Hindle
123/6 123/0
MemphisNet
901-353-4563
2400 bps MAX
24 hrs daily
Hello Again;
Well, I have been on the phone with the FidoUtil author for the
last 45 minutes and the gist of the whole conversation was simply
this:
QUOTE FROM MARSHALL PRESNELL "Since they haven't bothered to
even ATTEMPT to register any copies of FidoUtil, I am FORCED to stop
updates. I was literally betting my computer on FidoUtilities success
and to DATE I have had only 4 registrations out of OVER 497 KNOWN
copies of FidoUtil."
I tend to agree with Mr. Presnell on this one, I know for a fact
that there are only 4 registrations since I am one of those! If you
are interested here are the stats on FU.
Initial Release (version 1.00) SENT to various Regions and
Net Host around the WORLD! Marketing studies returned 497 (this
represents ALMOST half of the ENTIRE network! Registrations generated
3 paid, 1 complimentary (mine) TOTAL INCOME $45 TOTAL expenditures
$200+ Net income -$155 (a loss)
Second release (version 1.10) SENT to the same systems as
initial release. TOTAL INCOME $0 TOTAL EXPENDITURES $200+ NET INCOME
-$155 (again a loss)
Marshall was literally betting his system on this one. He was
using a LOANER machine to operate on with the HOPES of getting enough
money to eventually purchase a machine. Well, thanks to the 493
persons who are probably STILL using FidoUtil FREE this will not
happen. He has had to give up the loaner and until he can figure a
way to get the $$$$ there WILL BE NO UPDATES to EITHER FidoUtil or
SMARTMAN (the automatic sysop)
To the 3 other registrants of FidoUtil Mr. Presnell sends a
personal THANKS, to the rest of you DEADBEATS who are using something
for nothing he sends a warning, and I quote here "If those persons
who fail to honestly reimburse authors for shareware continue the
trend, there will soon be ONLY commercial software for the IBM".
I say this, "The Commodore 64 was once the largest selling home
computer in the world, it also had a HUGE amount of shareware
floating around for it, but the same lackluster attitude contributed
greatly to its fall from grace. Authors must make a living too.
Granted most shareware authors work a steady job, BUT they also
Fidonews Page 12 27 Oct 1986
market and distribute programs for others that could well be SOLD to
a commercial house for a profit. They do this because they want to
try to help out, while still making a SMALL bit for their effort. I
fear that the shareware market for the IBM is heading the same way,
DOWN. If this happens it could get EXPENSIVE to maintain your little
hobby.
If only 20.1% of the total KNOWN copies of FU had registered it
would have been considered a success. To date only .008% have
registered their copies of FU. Had FU been a success Marshall would
have released Smartman (a FANTASTIC PROGRAM (( DEMO AVAILABLE ))) as
a shareware item too. As it is Smartman is a STRICTLY commercial
venture and ANY updates past 1.2 of FU will be available to
REGISTERED USERS ONLY!!!!!
Tom Jennings has intentions of charging for some part or all of
version 12. Why cause you DEADBEATS almost refuse to pay for a good
thing even if you continue to use it. Thom Henderson tried the
shareware approach with ARC. This cured him REAL FAST. He has
received only a small handful of registrations to a program that I
will venture to say resides on EVERY IBM in the world, and gets used
extensively by same. His next venture (SEADog) was COMMERCIAL ONLY!
John Warren has apparently (correct me if I am wrong here)
decided to call it QUITS. He has not been heard from regarding any
updates to Listgen for quite some time now.
Procomm enjoys little better success as does Qmodem or
GenericTerm. The list goes on and on. These authors are getting sick
and tired of trying to help out for FREE.
There is a moral to this little soapbox speech. If you can
honestly say you DO NOT USE any of the above mentioned programs ALONG
with the countless others out there for the asking then you are
either RICH and buy everything commercial ONLY, or you are telling a
LIE ! The moral is this, "If you continue this trend then you had
better start saving every penny you can get because the CHEAPEST
commercial software for the IBM that is any good starts at around
$200 per program and goes up from there. I venture to say that if the
worst happens then the average IBM owner will purchase about 2
programs a YEAR. He will eventually get tired of having to BUY the
high priced stuff, pirating will surely go up, software will go up to
help cover the costs of lost sales to pirates, pirating will go up
again and soon everyone in the world will be either a crook or broke
or BOTH! THINK ABOUT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now for a final note, Any requests for software regarding FU or
Smartman should be directed to me @ 123/6 or 123/0. Since Marshall
has had to go OFF-LINE he has asked me if I will handle the mail for
him on these 2 programs. If you request FU, you will be sent a nice
little note telling you how to get it. If you request Smartman then
you will again get another note detailing how to get a FULL WORKING
COPY, the demo file I have is severely limited in scope and uses. It
is designed to give you just a small taste of WHAT the full fledged
version can do. I will not file attach either of these programs out,
if you want them you will have to call to get them from me. If you
Fidonews Page 13 27 Oct 1986
wish to PURCHASE A REGISTERED COPY of either program then you will
need to send the following to Marshall Presnell:
To get a SMARTMAN send $ 55 to:
Marshall Presnell
2006-D Ceder Fork Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27407
ATTN: Smartman
To get FidoUtil send $ 15 to:
Marshall Presnell
2006-D Ceder Forks Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27407
ATTN: FidoUtility
To obtain the SOURCE code to FU send $ 40 INSTEAD of the $15
Well I guess I have rambled on enough for now. I continue to
emphatically assert the authors RIGHTS to charge for shareware (after
all shareware , unlike FREEWARE, IS NOT FREE) and will continue my
little speeches on this subject until I am either forced out of
FidoNews and the Net (unlikely to say the least) or you start showing
me that you can live up to your end of the shareware bargain and PAY
the small price for the stuff you use !
Thanks may be sent to me @123/6.
Registrations may be sent to the AUTHORS OF THE RESPECTIVE PROGRAMS
INVOLVED (see the docs on your program for the address)
Complaints and GRIPES may be filed under "who cares"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 14 27 Oct 1986
Joe Lindstrom
Fido 134/1
Calgary, AB
+=================+
!The Nautical View!
+=================+
Part 1: Review of the Commodore 128 PC
Since the large majority of BBS users are Commodore owners, I
find it strange that there are little or no Commodore-oriented
articles here in the FidoNews. So, without further ado, I will
attempt to satisfy their demands and start a little column of my
own for them. They will, for the most part, deal with the
Commodore 64 and 128 computers. For Amiga news... anyone else
out there wanna take a stab at this?
We'll start by reviewing the Commodore 128 PC itself, with
accompanying hardware. The Commodore 128 is a fairly new machine
developed by the same folks that gave the world the 64, which
introduced inexpensive computing to the "common folk". It is
actually three computers in one. For those that have made the
upgrade from a 64 to a 128, good news: one of the three computers
inside this wonderful machine is the good old 64, meaning you can
run all your favorite games, applications, and the like.
The second of the three machines is the new "128 mode", which
gives the BASIC programmer 122K of space in which to play. New
software developed for this new mode will probably take advantage
of the increased memory. Also available soon is the 1750 RAM
expansion, which boosts the 128 up to 640K of RAM. Not bad for
an 8 bit machine. You can use this mode in either 40 or 80
columns (you can also use the double-speed 2 MHz mode with 80
columns). The world of 2400 baud modems is now open! Could a
128 implementation of Fido be imminent? Somehow I doubt it...
The third mode is something a lot of people are familiar with:
CP/M. Yes, we can even use most (not quite all) of the programs
CP/M users have come to know and love/hate. To do this, a Z-80
chip is resident inside the machine, and a new disk drive was
developed: the 1571.
The 1571 can be used in any of the three modes, though in 64
mode it performs like the (slow) 1541. This is a high speed disk
drive folks! Yes, from Commodore. Unbelievable you say? I
guess you'll have to trust me on this one. It delivers high
speed data transfer in either 128 or CP/M modes, and in CP/M mode
it has an added plus: compatibility with the industry standard
MFM disk format. Disks formatted with the FORMAT command
provided will be formatted in the native GCR format, but you can
still read and write from/to Kaypro, Epson, Osborne, IBM (CP/M
86), and other disks. Most software will run with little or no
modifications (I've already fallen in love with NSWP and LU),
though there are still a few bugs to be ironed out. So far I've
Fidonews Page 15 27 Oct 1986
had no trouble. Of course, my limited experience with MS-DOS has
helped me adjust quite a bit: God help those poor souls who
aren't used to simply typing the program name and having it load
and execute!
As far as printers go, Commodore now offers the MPS-1000,
which is a fairly high speed beast and will run straight off the
serial port (the 128 uses a DIN connector), or from RS-232 (the
real thing this time!), meaning Amiga and non-Commodore users can
use it. However, I picked up the Panasonic 1080 printer, and a
Xetec Super Graphix Interface, and I am quite happy. The Xetec,
by the way, offers full Commodore 1525 emulation, so all your
existing software will print properly if it supported the 1525
(most do). You can also download different fonts into the
interface, and about 15 are provided (along with a program which
enables you to design your own).
The RGB monitor is the Commodore 1902. This is much superior
to the old 1702 in that you can direct-connect it to the 128 to
view the 80 column RGB output. For those who don't know what RGB
is, it is basically a mode in which the three primary colours
(Red, Green, and Blue) are sent to the monitor over three lines,
and three (instead of the usual one) electron guns "paint" the
screen, giving crisp, sharp detail as Commodore owners have never
seen before. This monitor will ALSO connect to the standard 40
column input and display accordingly (you must, however, flip the
front switch to either SEPARATED or COMPOSITE, depending on how
you connected). She's quite nice.
Finally, Commodore now offers two new modems. There is the
inexpensive 1660 Modem/300, which delivers 300 baud at a very low
price. Better (and more expensive) is the 1670 Modem/1200, which
is fully Hayes compatible and is colour coordinated to match the
128, and is also quite compact in size. However, I decided to go
with the Taihaho Lynker's Modem 1200, as I was able to get it on
sale complete with Commodore interface. This modem has performed
flawlessly, but there is one problem which is common to ANY 1200
baud modem connected to a 64 or 128. There are internal clock
timing differences between machines. The difference is very
small, but shows up at high speeds. This is due to the fact that
the Commodore does not have a UART chip, but instead drives RS-
232 via software interrupts. Any difference in timing can cause
garbled data. There IS a solution: the lo-byte baud rate
character can be "trimmed" to work correctly with your machine.
Best results are a value between 55 and 69 (my machine uses 65).
The problem: most terminal programs don't let you play with this.
One I know of does: Bobsterm Pro 128, which I'll review in my
next column.
If you own a 64, and want to do more, THIS is the alternative
for you. The 128 will work with all your old peripherals (though
the 1541 is rather slow with CP/M, and WON'T read MFM disks), so
the upgrade can be very inexpensive. The added RAM means your
programs can be longer and do more. The BASIC 7.0 that operates
in 128 mode is a dream to work with. There are over 140
different commands at your disposal, including all the DOS
Fidonews Page 16 27 Oct 1986
commands that were available on the BASIC 4 on the old PET
machines. Check it out! And bring your chequebook!
I'm interested in answering any of your questions about either
the 64 or 128. If you are having a problem, please address your
mail to Joe Lindstrom via Calgary Fido (Net 134 Node 1), and I'll
address it in an upcoming article.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 17 27 Oct 1986
=================================================================
WANTED
=================================================================
Christopher Baker
Metro-Fire Fido 135/14 (0) XP:
It's Convenient but is it Necessary?
The PRIVATE flag should NOT be the default setting in your
CONFIG.DOG, fellow SEAdog capable Sysops. The MAJORITY of the
mail I send to and receive from SEAdog Nodes contains NO
sensitive or restricted info, so, WHY mark it 'Private'?
It has always been my impression that the purpose of BBSing and
mail is to communicate AND disseminate information to the
largest number of people possible. Setting Private as the
default for all outgoing mail defeats this purpose.
If it IS necessary for a message to be Private, add this flag to
the message before you save it. Don't compromise my board with
Private messages that would serve and enlighten a wider audience
if they were sent in the open. What will happen if the Electronic
Communications Act says I cannot unPrivate a message without the
sender's consent?
I'm sure most of these Private messages (especially from HELP
Nodes) are not intended by their authors to be restricted
information. I'm sure it's just a BAD habit being exacerbated by
the ability to set certain message bits as default in the
SEAdog configuration.
This is in the WANTED section, so what do I want? I want you to
CUT IT OUT. Unless every message you send out is filled with
voice telephone numbers or credit card numbers or some other
sensitive information that should not be dispersed to every
corner of Fido, take the PRIVATE flag out of your CONFIG.DOG and
Private the mail that needs it on a message by message basis.
Thanks, I needed that.
Flames and conflicting opinions may be addressed to me at
135/14(0) or in this forum.
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Fidonews Page 18 27 Oct 1986
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FOR SALE
=================================================================
Ellicott Software
Fido 109/628
DataCare, a PC Magazine choice in its recent review of hard
disk products, is available at a new low price - $49.95, down
from $129.95. This is the same product that has been favorably
reviewed. The price is for a limited time only.
This product is used by a number of Fido BBS's in net 109, and
has found favor with many people that are not SYSOPS in the
Baltimore - DC - Virginia area.
Three-week trials are available from any user of the product.
The review can be read in the PC magazine issue that had as its
emphasis EGA boards. A review has also appeared in FidoNews
Volume 3 Issue 29, written by the Sysop of Fido 109/628, the
Reindeer Shed in Reisterstown, who uses and loves the product.
DataCare is published by:
Ellicott Software, Inc.
3777 Plum Hill Court
Ellicott City, MD 21043
(301) 465-2690
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Fidonews Page 19 27 Oct 1986
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
166/1 Is no longer the home of the MCA Public Domain Software
Library. Juan Jiminez has moved onwards to an Azure Island in
the Caribbean, entrusting 166/1 to me. Therefore, any mail to
him addressed to 166/1 is NOT getting through to him, as he is
out of touch for the moment. I am willing to collect the letters
to him and forward them when he does get a node up, but don't
wish to answer the flood of mail for him. All mail addressed to
him WILL be forwarded when he gets back in touch with me.
Just thought you'd like to know, and perhaps save a dime for
the phone call.
Kevin-Neil Klop,
166/1 FireFlyte BBS
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Fidonews Page 20 27 Oct 1986
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
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 FidoNet node 1/1.
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Robert Plamondon
Wyrld Wyrm BBS, 143/12
The Wyrld Wyrm is the only west coast connection to the
SFFAN Science Fiction and Fantasy EchoMail conference. I'd
like to feed a number of new sites. I'm also starting up an
EchoMail conference on Role-Playing Games (all types). Contact
me at the Wyrld Wyrm, Fido 143/12, for more information.
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