661 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
661 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:26 Page 1
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Volume 2, Number 19 24 June 1985
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+----------------------------------------------------------+
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| / \ |
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| - FidoNews - /|oo \ |
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| Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ |
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| Users Group | | \ \\ |
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| Newsletter | (*) | \ )) |
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| ______ |__U__| / \// |
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| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
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| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
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| (jm) |
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+----------------------------------------------------------+
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Publisher: Fido 107/375
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Chief Procrastinator: Thom Henderson
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Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 107/375. You
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are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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Fidonews. Article submission standards are contained in the
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file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 107/375.
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Disclaimer or don't-blame-us:
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The contents of the articles contained here are not our
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responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them;
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everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
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received.
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The Answer to Copy Protection
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I've already spoken in defense of copy protection. I don't
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like it, but I can see why they do it. The big question is,
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what else can be done?
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When radio was first invented it was envisioned as
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"telephone without the wires". It was a neat idea. It
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could be alot of fun for alot of people. It could even be
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useful in certain cases. But there aren't too many ways it
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can compete with the more usual sort of telephone.
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Then David Sarnoff got a bright idea. He came up with
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broadcasting. This is more revolutionary than it sounds.
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His idea was to transmit entertainment, news, whatever
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people wanted to listen to. All the expensive equipment
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would be at his end, so anyone could listen even if they
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didn't have much to spend.
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The big thing is, he put in all the money and all the work,
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and GAVE it away! Anybody who wanted to was more than
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welcome to listen in. The trick, of course, is that he
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figured out how to make money some other way.
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:28 Page 2
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I think that software marketing is in that kind of a
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position today. People are still thinking of marketing
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software in terms of the mainframe market, and it just isn't
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working very well. It's just too easy to make pirate
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copies, and there are simply too many small fish to go
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after.
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The traditional answer is copy protection, but nobody likes
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it, and it doesn't even work. People seem able to figure
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out how to bust copy protection schemes almost as fast as
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they can be devised. Even the proposed "key" system isn't
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an answer. How is a physical key any different from a key
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sector on a disk?
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The one original answer I have heard is the Freeware
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approach. It has the virtue of being revolutionary, and it
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solves many of the inherent problems of copy protection. By
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taking the approach that "if you don't pay, then you would
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have pirated it anyway, so take it!" it does manage to make
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piracy impossible, but few people ever seem to get around to
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paying at all.
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What we need is for someone to have a flash of insight, and
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figure out another way to make money by writing good
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software. We need some means whereby the more people who
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use a program the more money the author makes, but not by
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charging for the software. Regretfully, I have not had that
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sort of stroke of genius, and I tend to doubt I ever will.
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I'd thought of advertising, but I can't quite handle the
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image of a "Big Mac" ad popping up whenever I run my
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compiler.
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In closing, I will state publicly something I've said many
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times in private:
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"There is some solution to software piracy, and it isn't
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copy protection."
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:29 Page 3
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============================================================
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NEWS
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============================================================
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I am unhappy, is anyone else out there unhappy? I am talking
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about the "improved" fido with nets/nodes/regions/hosts, etc.
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I was under the impression that fido was running very smoothly
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before the change (Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people
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spent alot of time coordinating the whole shebang and for that
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I am very thankful), But was the direction fido took the best?
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I know that the number of nodes had to be expanded, but that
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could have been done without the nets. (Currently there can
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be over 32,000 nodes / net. Obviously that should be large
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enough for quite a while). Too much work was being done by
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fido 51 and I agree that it makes a lot of sense that
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"geographical regions" be set up to assign new nodes.
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One of the major problems with the newest version is that the
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routing is included with the node list. That means that most
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of the time, there will be at least 2 phone calls made to send
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fido mail. The problems with this approach are:
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1). The host is VERY! busy. It sometimes takes many days to
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get through to the host.
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2). There is NO way to know if the fidomail ever got through
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to the destination
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3). More phone calls are generated / evening which increases
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the congestion.
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For those (few?) people who send mail each evening to more
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than 1 node served by a host, there is a savings using the
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routing. I am sure that some of the busy nodes want the
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routing, but some of us (most of us?) probably don't see the
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savings.
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It makes sense that the node list is sorted by region and this
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should have been done in the past. Since I am going to assume
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that most sysops have better editors than edlin, It should not
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be a problem to put your "region" at the top so they are the
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first ones displayed. For those of us who use fidomail often,
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we probably remember the 2 or 3 nodes that we usually send
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mail to.
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Minor complaint; I find it easier to remember 1 number (even a
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4 digit number which allows 10,000 nodes than a net/node
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number combination. I am fido #208 and I would rather not
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have another #208 even in a different region. Most people are
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probably smarter than me so maybe this will not cause problems
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for others.
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I have been a software consultant for over 10 years now and
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there are 2 sayings that I try to live by.
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1. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
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2. If the damn thing works, LEAVE IT ALONE!
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So far, they have not failed me. I just hope that by making
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:32 Page 4
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the current changes we have not opened a can of worms.
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Bruce Lomasky
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Fido #208 (net 16 I think)
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West Hartford, CT
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:32 Page 5
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Mike Ringer
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Fido 117/437
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College Station, TX
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The first call
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I can remember when my parents bought our first and only
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computer!. It was an IBM PC that I was very proud of. We
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bought it in the summer of 81, It had an amazing 48k which
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we quickly upgraded to 64k and eventually to 256 when dad
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found he could not run Lotus on 128k. I got my modem a year
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later after whinning one for weeks. I signed on to my first
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board to find that there was nothing not any thing for the
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IBM! Now what do I do? well you leave messages, but I did
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not understand how to leave them or get rid of the ones I
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screwed up! After many futile tries the sysop broke in and
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said "I thought IBM's were business machines?" This scared
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the pajeebers out of me and I turned my modem off, calmed
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down and called the board back back and the sysop explained
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what had happened. This is something you just don't do to a
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first time user folks! I don't care how nice the sysop is
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you just don't tell a 13 year old kid that there are no
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games for his computer (by the way I have forgiven Paul for
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doing this). So I sat down and wrote a game called Zor and
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then wrote ZorII and I'm in the process of writing ZorIII
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but I haven't gotten very far. After playing my game about
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ten times I decided it was no fun to play your own adventure
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games because yo knew how to win them. Finaly the sysop I
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had my first encounter with got some games and I was
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satisfied for a while but not for ever. Now I have about 30
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disks full of games and another 20 full of utilities progams
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I don't have time to use because I'm to busy trying to
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scrape enough money together so I can install a phone line
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and put up a board and share my games and ancient wares but
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till then I'll try to upload to the other boards in College
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Station. Your probably wondering though why I don't make
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long distance calls to other boards well I have two very
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good reasons! 1)Don't have the money to call long distance
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2)You must be validated on most boards before you can
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download. I have been helping alot of my friend with thier
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computers though. I even have one paying 15 dollars and
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hour to convert wordstar files to ascii and then uploading
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them to his Commodore 64. Along with doing that I have been
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trying to write a program that allows my Pc to be a burgular
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alarm. Along with working 4:30-9:00 Tues,Thurs and 4:30-
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11:00 on Fri, Sat and 2:00-7:00 on Sunday, and fighting my
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family for the use of the computer I don't see how I get any
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thing done. Maybe I should but my own computer instead of a
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phone line! hmmmm lets see, 3400 dollars for a new computer?
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well maybe I'll get the new phone line at 3.50 an hour I
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don't think I will be able to get a new computer maybe a
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used one but not a new one. Oh well life does go on but my
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article can't! Be on the look out for Ollie's board near the
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end of the month. I think I'll have a game review on the
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board and expand it to Fido news so Fido users will know
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what Pd games are worth playing!
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:38 Page 6
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:38 Page 7
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Hello from Fido 17/35
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Greg Martz
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I run a relatively new bbs, and one with a different
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flavor. I wanted to have a place to call and get info and
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numbers to other BBS's around the nation. Since I could not
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find one, I decided to start my own. Since this is the
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first Fido to be devoted to the upkeep of other BBS's, I
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don't have a preset format to follow. I know that most all
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BBS's have their own list of local and national numbers, but
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I thought there might just be a need for a "National" number
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keeper. The reason I'm writing this is because I would like
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to ask for help. If all the Fido's would compile their list
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of numbers and send them to me via Netmail, that would be of
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great help. I also need some help verifying the numbers.
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I am thinking of putting in a file section so that any BBS
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who has a pay system can Advertise their systems, and can
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keep a current catalog on file. Any input or suggestions?
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If you would like to help out, or want some further info.
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send a message via netmail to me at net 17 node 35.
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Note: My system is semi-restricted. If you would like
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advance sign-up send Name, Pwd, Phone#, etc.
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Greg Martz
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Sysop Fido 17/35
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:39 Page 8
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============================================================
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FOR SALE
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============================================================
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The Computer Farm now carries Hard Drives for the Sanyo MBC
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55x Computers. We are operating these systems on our Fido
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node 428. The system is an External 5 or 10 meg system with
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controler and driver for up 4 drives. We have Tested the
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driver with MSDOS 2.11, DS-DOS and AOK DOS. The hard drive
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system only takes 10-20 min. to install.
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5 Meg External ................ 995.00
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10 Meg External ...............1095.00
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For more information on thes systems send mail to Node 428
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net 15 or call 1 800 621 8386 Ext 283. In Colorado call 303
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495-3815.
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:40 Page 9
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===========================================================
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| Lotto-----Lotto-----Lotto-----Lotto-----Lotto |
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| For those of you who suffer from Lotto fever |
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| we have the ultimate software package for you ! |
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| We call out Lotto analyzer BUSTER after what it |
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| does to our state lottery program. |
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| BUSTER is available in compiled Basic, or for those of |
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| you who play 2 or 3 Lottos at the same time, we have |
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| a version in Better Basic that takes full advantage of |
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| of an 8087 co-processor automatically. |
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| |
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| Buster is available by mail for the discount price of |
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| $ 29.95 for either version. Source code is available |
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| at an additional charge of $25 above program price. |
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| |
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| Send a Postal Money Order to: Software, 137 Prospect |
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| Street, Nanuet, New York 10954 for 7 day delivery. |
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===========================================================
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FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:41 Page 10
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============================================================
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NOTICES
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============================================================
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Fidonews Bugs
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You may have noticed that last week's issue of Fidonews came
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out a little late in some areas. It seems we made what
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appears to be a fairly common mistake.
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Fido treats its node list as gospel. If you have a 1200
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baud modem and try to send mail to a node with a 2400 baud
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modem, Fido will try to make the call at 2400 baud.
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Obviously, this won't work very well. (You are in a
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similar, or worse, position if you have a 300 baud modem.)
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The answer is to edit your node list, making sure that
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nobody is listed with a higher baud rate than you can
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support.
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We overlooked this for the simple reason that NODELIST.EXE
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used to take care of this for us.
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------------------------------------------------------------
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*** Calendar of Events ***
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30 Jun 85 Submissions deadline for next issue of Fidonews.
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If you have any event you want listed in this calendar,
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please send a note to node 107/375.
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