529 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
529 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:35 Page 1
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Volume 2, Number 21 8 July 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 107/7
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Chief Procrastinator: Thom Henderson
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Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 107/7. 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 107/7.
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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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Computer English
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We have a problem here. A minor one, 'tis true, but a
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problem all the same. You see, normal English usage isn't
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all that well adapted to bulletin board use.
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Let me give you an example. I have several users who run
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their own bulletin boards. On occasion (during chats and
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such) one of them will invite me to call into his board. I
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generally agree by saying something like "Okay, I'll drop in
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and visit you someday." A few times this has gotten me a
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reaction like "What? You're going to drive over here?" No,
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I say, I mean I'll call it up and check it out.
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How can I tell someone "I'll be seeing you" when I'm not
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going to be seeing him at all? I'm just going to look for
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messages from him. So why not "I'll be reading you"?
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If I tell a user, "I'll talk to you later", isn't he going
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to think I'm planning on phoning him and talking? But that
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isn't what I mean at all! It's much more descriptive if I
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tell him "I'll type to you later."
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:37 Page 2
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If we extend this a little bit, we can come up with a whole
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lexicon of computer usage. "I'll be reading for you on
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such-and-such board." "I'm a bit finger-tied today."
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"Please pardon how I read, I have a frog in my hands."
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Now I realize that this takes a bit of getting used to, but
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isn't it much better than trying to use conventional phrases
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where they don't apply? With very little practice you'll
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soon find yourself easily typing things like "Gee, I haven't
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typed to George in awhile. I wonder where he's dialing?"
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What's the matter, cat got your fingers?
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:38 Page 3
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============================================================
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NEWS
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============================================================
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Response to Bruce Lomasky
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by Ben Baker -- Fido 76
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I read with some concern Bruce Lomasky's article in last
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weeks newsletter. We have not had a lot of negative
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response here in St. Louis, and I hope he represents a
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minority.
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Bruce, I think you missed the point when you spoke of the
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"'improved' Fido." A lot of people weren't coordinating
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FidoNet, only two were. When we got to more than 200 nodes
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it became essential that we decentralize. It had become too
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big and too much work. After all, Fido is a hobby for us
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too.
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The network-region concept was not intended to "improve"
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FidoNet, although I think that will ultimately be a result.
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Instead, it was the mechanism needed to allow 30 or more
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"coordinators" to have complete control over their piece of
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the pie without requiring a great deal of coordination.
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Now lets consider your concerns over routing.
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"1) The host is VERY! busy." In the larger networks, this
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is true. But most of the larger networks are served by
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both an inbound and an outbound host. During the National
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net window, the inbound host is in a "receive-only" mode.
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You only need compete with other folks calling the same
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host, not the host itself. St. Louis is one of the busiest
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networks, and we get the mail in and out with few delays. I
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recently sent a message to John Warren. In less than two
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hours, that message traveled form 100/76 to 100/482 to
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100/10 to 100/51 to 102/36 to 102/470 to 102/31, its final
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destination. A "many days" delay is almost always caused by
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a node that doesn't answer the phone, or a host with bad
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routing files. We expect the latter problem to eventually
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disappear.
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"2) There is no way to know if the mail got through." True
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enough, not only for FidoNet, but for the U.S. Postal
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Service as well. I think FidoNet is at least as reliable,
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and in most cases both faster and cheaper!
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"3) More phone calls are generated / evening." Probably,
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but during the National window there are actually FEWER
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calls with routing because many calls carry several
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messages. The other calls are during network collection and
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distribution periods occurring before and after the national
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window. This reduces rather than increases congestion!
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If you aren't served by an outbound host and if you NEVER
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send more than one message to an area, you're absolutely
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right, routing won't save you anything. But it won't cost
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you anything either. If you steadfastly insist on sending
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:40 Page 4
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any or all messages without routing, there is a simple
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answer. Any message with a nonexistent file "attached"
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will go directly to its destination, no muss, no fuss, no
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bother.
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I heartily endorse the KISS principle. What we have was the
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simplest way to get where we wanted to be. It WAS broke!
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We fixed it!
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:41 Page 5
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Typed in by:
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Robert E. Spivack
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SYSOP
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Fido #346 Region #10 (480) 972-8164
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Boca Raton, FLA -- Micro-Systems Software Inc. recently
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began shipping a full-featrued, electronic bulletin-board
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software package that supports electronic mail, as well as
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program or data-file exchanges for the IBM Corp. Personal
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Computer and compatible systems.
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The program, called BBS-PC, is said to provide 16 separate
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sub-boards; four different file-transfer protocols for
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uploading and downloading data; and a terminal feature that
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supports a second modem, communications ports, and phone
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lines.
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That last feature is said to enable a user to answer one
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modem aned dial out on the other.
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The new feature, called terminal mode, can route calls
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through to other systems using two modems, two
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communciations ports, and two telephone lines. The system
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can answer either line, or it can answer one line while
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dialing out on the other.
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The program has a suggested retail price of $249 and
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requires a minimum of 256K bytes of RAM.
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With BBS-PC, users can create a communciations network for
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businesses, compujter-user groups, organizations or public
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access. The program's sysop operator has complete control
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over all access to the system and each of its 16 sections,
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the company said.
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Some of the sections can be open to any caller and others
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can be restricted. According to the company, up to 256
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security levels are possible with the BBS-PC. Each user's
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access can include or exclude read, write, upload or
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download functions.
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The program also is said to maintain communciations at 1200
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bps or 2400 bps, and it supports a variety of protocols
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including Modem, Xmodem, Modem7, and other Modem-line
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transfer protocols, as well as the ASCII-line or block
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transmission modes.
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The software options of BBS-PC are said to configure
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communications parameters, line-feed options, message-base
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size and member-base size, and to allow separate directory
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paths for those files.
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Typically, the BBS-PC system can include up to four setions:
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the default drive or directory; the message-base section;
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the member-base section; and the upload/download section.
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The directory includes the system program, the master data
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:45 Page 6
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file, and a user-log data file. The directory is said to
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provide true message formatting to the caller's terminal; to
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maintain permanent user records; and to let uers send
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private messages that can be read only by the addressee.
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Also, the directory reclaims message space when messages are
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deleted, and will provide new space, if necessary, to
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support new entries, the developer said.
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While the program can reside on dual-disk or single-disk-
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drive systems, each section of the program can be assigned
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its own drive, or, in the case of systems with hard disk
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drives, each section can be assigned its own directory,
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according to Micro-Systems.
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One feature of the system is said to be its ability to
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isolate the user from the host directory and the DOS
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environment. The program's higher-level software directory
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maintains all upload and download files, and handles
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carrier-loss recovery - without a host-system reset - even
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during file uploads or downloads.
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The program is said to contain a "help" screen and other
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files that can be edited or altered to suit the needs of a
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particular user.
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Those information features include items such as a log-on
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message that identifies the system and welcomes users;
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messages for new users; information on the system, such as
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its purpose or the equipment being used; and messages that
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aid in using the bulletin board or uploading and downloading
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files.
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The program also is said to include a terminal option that
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can end a call with one keystroke. This is intended to be
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used as a means of dealing with nuisance calls or system
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crashers.
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Also included in the program is a "blanking" feature that is
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designed to prevent video burn-in.
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In addition, there is a call-length limiting feature, as
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well as a "sleep" feature that allows the computer to shut
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down for a period of inactivity, the developer said.
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Other software available from Micro-Systems includes (blah
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blah blah blah...)
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Boy, doesn't Fido for no bucks sound like a better deal!
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------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:47 Page 7
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MASTER FIDO USERLIST
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A few issues ago there was an article about compiling a
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master list of FIDO USERS, Here is where the project now
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stands:
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We finally got enough response from the sysops to compile
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the first test version of the master "USERLIST". The test
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was done with the response from 33 nodes. We came out with
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a total of 5500 users between all the boards, and after
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exact duplicates were removed we ended up with 4500 names.
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This list was just the TEST version to see if it was
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possible so it will not be made public (Especially since we
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all split into nets, the Net/Node numbers that were sent
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in are not applicable any more). This is a PLEA to all
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sysops.........
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PLEASE SEND US YOUR USERLISTS AFTER THEY ARE
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COMPILED WITH SHIPUSER.COM!!!!
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If we don't get a larger response the whole project will be
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a waste! We would like this to be done on a steady basis,
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say at least monthly or bi-monthly, but to do this we need
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LOTS OF COOPERATION.
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Hopefully this master list will stir up increased usage of
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FIDONET mail by users instead of mostly sysops as it is
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today, becuase you'll know where to find the person to whom
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you want to send a message. Also if this thing does work
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out we might try to have it published which would increase
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the popularity of all of our boards.
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If you don't have the program SHIPUSER.COM you can get it
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from Fido 107/0 in the USERLIST section, then please
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forward the userlists back to node 107/0 or 107/3 either
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in FIDONET mail or by uploading it. The next master list
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will be compiled on JULY 15, 1985 and then distributed
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starting the next day.
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Matt Kanter (Sysop of DEC-WARE Fido 107/0)
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aka 107/79
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FIDONEWS -- 08 Jul 85 00:00:52 Page 8
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============================================================
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NOTICES
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============================================================
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Fidonews Bugs
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Very sorry, folks. SEAboard went down sometime during the
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week while your humble editor was on vacation. Hence, it
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was not up Sunday night in order to create this issue of
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Fidonews on time.
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Also, our local net, Net 107, has renumbered its nodes. As
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of the latest node list, we are now at node 7 in net 107.
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As usual, we need and want your articles, so please ship
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them to us at 107/7.
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