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Volume 4, Number 32 24 August 1987
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
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 1987 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.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
Problems with Opus distribution .......................... 1
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 9
The Regular Irregular Column ............................. 9
Talk To Your Computer! ................................... 14
3. NOTICES .................................................. 16
Notice of action by the IFNA Board of Directors .......... 16
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 16
Latest Software Versions ................................. 16
IFNA Order Form .......................................... 18
IFNA Membership Application .............................. 19
FidoNews 4-32 Page 1 24 Aug 1987
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Origin: JonesNose (1:321/132)
The Problem
I could not find Opus_102.Arc
The reason for this document is basically that I could not find
Opus_102.Arc, two days after the release announcement. In
particular, I could not find it on the SoftwareCentral system,
and I was flamed by the sysop of that system for wanting him to
do what he has committed himself and his node to doing.
Dave Finster asked for suggested solutions. I rambled the
beginnings of this idea in Meadow, thought I'd take the time to
formalize it and get it out, perhaps in time to be discussed at
the Conference.
Opus distribution format is very inconsistent
This is not a criticism - simply a statement of fact. If one
polls the various "big" systems around here looking for the major
Opus archives, even those of the same version will contain
different sets of files.
This is a royal pain in the ass.
Distribution of new releases often damages other net functions
Echomail was thoroughly munged in R16 around Bastille Day
In our region, Echomail reliability has been a long standing
problem. One of the reasons I was given for one of the many
breakdowns was that the echomail distribution nodes were busy
sending Opus around on Bastille Day, and "something had to give".
If IFNA maintains its hands off echomail policy, perhaps they can
at least take some of the preassure off in other areas. I don't
see why, with all the capacity of this network, "something has to
give".
By streamlining and formalizing the software distribution
channel, and keeping it separate from the other two primary
channels (the NetMail routes and the Echomail backbone), this
might be avoided.
Distribution should not be a problem of the creator
Creators should not have to bear the cost of distribution
The creators of net compatible software, particularly those in
FidoNews 4-32 Page 2 24 Aug 1987
the Opus group, are doing us all a great favor by putting out
fine products for low/no cost.
It does not seem fair that they should have to bear the cost of
distribution, or even the hassle of arranging distribution.
Not precluding creator distribution nets
Of course, this is not to preclude an author from setting up his
own distribution network, nor does it mandate the use of this
network. In some cases, such as Spark Software, where money MUST
change hands, it is obviously the responsibility of the author to
handle distribution.
Keeping track of distribution points should be easy for the sysop
The main goal of this proposal is to make the life of the sysop
simpler. As it stands, there are overlapping sets of
distributors for Sirius, Opus, Dutchie, and all the rest. The
sysop is not sure he can get what he wants from the "official"
IFNA software distribution nodes. And he is unsure of what the
distribution format is.
By formalizing the distribution chain, the sysop will have a
known good place to look, and the author can spend a little more
time packaging distributions and be sure they are consistant.
A proposed solution
A Software Backbone - a la the Echomail backbone
Backbone nodes to be multi-line (described below)
Distribution Files Should Be:
Identical on all distribution systems
The files on all distribution nodes should be identical in name,
contents, internal dates, and external dates.
Someone who round robin polls official distribution nodes using
update file requests should not get the same files twice simply
because the distribution systems have different dates on the same
archives.
On all distribution systems within 24 hours
Once a proper distribution hits the chain, it should, in most
cases, be on all the other distribution systems (backbone and
regional) within 24 hours.
Backbone nodes should NOT be otherwise committed
FidoNews 4-32 Page 3 24 Aug 1987
A Distribution Backbone or Regional Distribution node should not
perform any other central service - they should not be major
echomail hubs, NetMail Hubs, Region or Net Co-ordinator systems,
IGATES or OGATES.
There is simply no good reason to concentrate all these functions
into a small number of nodes. By doing so, all we do is increase
the chance of one system failure entirely blacking out all the
functions of a region.
Regional Nodes assume cost of Backbone pickup
The regional nodes should bear the cost of picking up from the
backbones. This is not as bad as it sounds - there are enough
latest and greatest freaks out there that this should not be a
problem.
The backbone to backbone costs should be borne by the backbone
systems. (You gots to pay for a 1/ number!)
Should be defined in Policy/IFNA
I personally feel this structure should be formalized at least at
the Policy level, and perhaps at the IFNA level.
I don't want to see this to end up like echomail, where a small
group (the echomail backbone) effectively dictates the policy of
the net. This could be a good test of the abilities of IFNA to
organize something, and perhaps change the minds of the echomail
backbone on some of their obstinancies.
False Node Distribution
Multiline node
The backbone nodes would best be run on multi-line systems.
Multiple node addresses with same phone in public nodelist
Private number of the back channel node is kept that way
The backbone nodes would operate (at least) two lines, and have
(at least) two node numbers. Their normal node numbers, and a 1/
number. The phone numbers in the nodelist would all be the same
- the "public" number.
The actual number of the second number of each of these systems
would be a closely held secret, and would be associated with the
"real" 1/ partition of their system.
Distributors are given the real numbers
FidoNews 4-32 Page 4 24 Aug 1987
Only the regional distributors would be authorized to use the
"real" back channel numbers. This should be enforced by as much
technical security as is possible.
Authors submit via regional nodes
In order to keep the system secure, authors would make
distributions via their regional node. The regional node feeds
to his backbone back channel number. Once distributed across the
backbone, it is fed down to the rest of the regional nodes.
Possible problems with the solution
Frequent releases
A problem with something like this will be authors of highly
dynamic products. Authors who add features and release on every
change could dramatically increase the costs of running this
backbone.
Some definite policy should be established on how frequently
changes are to be allowed, along with a policy on exceptions.
For instance, Opus 1.02 has a couple of very nasty bugs, a 1.03
is soon to follow. While there will probably be a week between
them in this case, if the maximum submission rate is one per
month, some exception would have to be made.
There are also some things that need to be changed more
frequently than our "once a month" example rule. For instance,
nodelists, newsletters, and the work of the megalist and echolist
projects.
Distribution Format Changes
A related problem is a change in the format of the distribution.
If the archive sets change, there is considerable work to be done
on the part of the distribution system to change the references.
Deciding what developers get access to the backbone
Who decides what developers get access to the distribution chain?
This is not a simple problem. Obviously, anyone with an FTSC
product code should be able to get at it. But many products do
not require FTSC product codes.
I don't have any answers, good or bad, to this question.
How to regulate access in the age of incompatible software
The obvious way to control access to the back channel is to
control file requests and access on the basis of node number and
FidoNews 4-32 Page 5 24 Aug 1987
password. However, given the current state of incompatibility
between WaZoo and Bark session security, this is a very difficult
problem to address.
Wasting a high speed modem and a line
The "back channel" lines would like to have high speed modem
attached to them. However, since these phone numbers would be
have to be very restricted in order to make this work, this
capacity would be wasted, to some degree.
A possible solution is to nominally have a high speed modem on
the backbone's standard line, and a medium speed modem on the
backchannel line, and swap them during distribution sessions.
I look at this as part of the price one has to pay if one wants
to be a "bigwig" in the net.
Summation
I don't want the job!
I obviously am not tempermentally suited for any social or
political task in the network. More importantly, I don't have
the hardware needed for this job. I don't really have the
hardware to even handle region distribution.
However, there is a person I have in mind for the task of being
an organizer of the backbone - I'm hoping he'll know who he is
and stand up and offer to do it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-32 Page 6 24 Aug 1987
NOTE: This article first appeared in FidoNews, Vol. 3, No. 30,
11 Aug., 1986. The author now lives at 1083 Mandarin Dr. NE,
Palm Bay, FL 32905, and is a Staff Software Engineer for Grumman
Aerospace.
* One Man's Opinion of PC-WRITE
One Man's Opinion of PC-WRITE
by John J. Herro, 1456 Miner Circle, Endicott, NY 13760
The author is a Senior Software Engineer for the General Electric
Company. He has no connection with Quicksoft, Inc., except for
being a registered user of PC-WRITE. Since he knows of no Fido
nodes near him, he is probably best reached by the U. S. Snail,
otherwise known as the U. S. Mule or the Phony Express.
PC-WRITE is an excellent word processor / text editor written by
Quicksoft, Inc., and marketed under the "Shareware" concept.
This means that you can download the latest version from your fa-
vorite bulletin board and try PC-WRITE for free. You can option-
ally "register" with Quicksoft for a reasonable fee, but even if
you choose not to register, you are still encouraged to distrib-
ute copies of the program. This is such a welcome relief from
copy-protected word processors that sell for several hundred
dollars!
PC-WRITE runs on any size PC, including a PC Junior. The program
includes a brief tutorial manual and a quick reference guide,
both of which can be printed out. Thus, when you copy PC-WRITE
you are also making copies of the two manuals, without the need
of an office copying machine!
Quicksoft provides several incentives for you to register. One
is telephone support. (More about that later.) Users who regis-
ter also receive a more detailed printed manual (which would not
fit on the PC-WRITE diskette), a one-year subscription to a news-
letter, and two free updates (or one update and the source code).
Finally, when you register, Quicksoft assigns a unique number for
you to embed into the program before you give away copies. If
anyone registers from one of your copies, Quicksoft will send you
a modest sum, hence the name "Shareware."
PC-WRITE contains two major programs, ED to edit a file and PR to
print it. You simply type ED <filename> or PR <filename>; the
on-line help is excellent. When you first get PC-WRITE, you run
a special program to customize it for your particular printer. A
large menu of printer manufacturers is presented; when one is se-
lected, a menu of printer models made by that manufacturer ap-
pears. Subscripts, superscripts, boldfacing, underlining, a va-
riety of fonts, etc., are then all available if your printer sup-
ports them.
If your printer is not on the menu, PC-WRITE can treat the print-
er as "dumb" (having no special features). Underlining and bold-
FidoNews 4-32 Page 7 24 Aug 1987
facing are still available if your printer recognizes backspaces.
Alternately, Quicksoft will help you customize PC-WRITE.
I've found the telephone support to be excellent, and I never re-
ceived a busy signal. Even before I registered, Quicksoft was
nice enough to help me with a printer problem. I have a Smith-
-Corona Deville 3 Messenger typewriter with a parallel computer
interface; it isn't on the PC-WRITE menu. It amounts to a daisy-
-wheel printer with a very small buffer. The DOS PRINT command
was working correctly, but when I ran PR, I would get the message
"Printer not ready, Abort, Retry, or Ignore?" Responding with R
caused errors on the printed page. My MS-DOS manual explained
how to do "infinite retry" with a SERIAL interface, but not with
a PARALLEL interface. Since my version of MS-DOS came with 90
days of telephone support, and the 90 days had not expired, I
first called the MS-DOS support telephone number. When they were
not able to help, I called Quicksoft. When Quicksoft asked if I
had registered, I said, "No. I'm willing to register, but I want
to be certain that PC-WRITE will work with my printer first."
They were very courteous about giving me help, and advised me to
type MODE LPT1:,,P. That fixed the problem, and of course I
added that command to my AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Quicksoft also told
me that if I had registered first and later became dissatisfied,
I would have no trouble getting my money back.
ED, the screen editor, has a few features not found even on some
expensive word processors. For example, you can optionally make
the program continuously keep a paragraph within the margins,
even while adding words to the middle of the paragraph! I find
this feature very useful. Also, PC-WRITE works with ASCII files
- a MUST for programmers. I've even edited .EXE files, because
there's no limit to the line length. (The screen automatically
scrolls horizontally when long lines are edited.) There are a
few "font characters," for example, alternate-B for Boldfacing.
These characters can optionally be made visible or invisible.
When they are invisible, boldfacing appears on the screen as
high intensity, etc.
PR interprets the special characters for your particular printer,
and also optionally pauses at the end of each page, in case you
don't have continuous paper. It also has a nice feature for re-
covering from a paper jam in a long document. If the paper jams,
you can interrupt PR and resume printing from the top of the cur-
rent page or any other page.
Other features include definable keys, mail-merge, footnotes and
headers, table of contents and index, automatic page breaks, file
includes, keyboard input during printing, etc. The method of
writing to the screen can be changed to avoid "snow" on some sys-
tems, and the screen can be divided into two windows of unequal
size. Text can be "cut" from one file and "pasted" into another.
Much thought has been given to assigning functions to keys, al-
though the assignments can be changed if desired. To COPY a
block of text, you use F3 three times: at the start of the block,
at the end of the block, and at the new location. Similarly, to
FidoNews 4-32 Page 8 24 Aug 1987
MOVE a block of text, you use F6 three times, and to DELETE a
block, you use F4 twice. (You can undelete the block with con-
trol-F4.) For the masochists among you, most of the control
codes of Wordstar (tm of MicroPro) are duplicated. Control-D can
be used instead of the -> key to move the cursor right one char-
acter, control-F will move right one word, etc.
PC-WRITE lacks two features that are found on some expensive word
processors. At present, ED cannot handle files that are too big
to fit in memory, and there is no spelling checker. Rumor has it
that both of these deficiencies will be removed in a later ver-
sion. In the meantime, PC-WRITE will at least help you segment
large files, and spelling checkers like EZSPELL and PC-SPELL can
be found on many bulletin boards.
PC-WRITE.ARC is available on the IFNA board, 314-576-2743. I
hope that PC-WRITE will become the de facto standard for PCs and
compatibles, and that the "Shareware" concept will put an end to
copy protection forever!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-32 Page 9 24 Aug 1987
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
-- The Regular Irregular Column --
Dale Lovell
1:157/504.1
FidoCon, here at last. I'm writing this from my room at the
conference having just checked in and registered for the
conference. I'll be writing parts of this over the next several
days and am going try to keep the flow of events intact. Most of
this column is going to be initial views of the people and the
earlier events at the conference. While registering I had a
chance to meet several people including Thom Henderson. All I'll
say is my mental image of Thom wasn't even close! While he seems
to have the personality I expected, the physical picture doesn't
even come close to matching. So far everyone has seemed very
friendly. This paragraph is going to come to a quick close as I
head off to SEA's hospitality suite, the reception and hopefully
a dinner squeezed in somewhere.
The reception on Thursday night proved to be a great
success. Got to meet several of the net's more well known
personalities, and some that aren't so well known but definitely
interesting. The real gem so far has been the Opus hospitality
suite sponsored by Vince Perriello. My only disappointment was
Telebit's representative turned in early. I had hoped to talk
with him longer, but he slipped away from me while I was involved
in another discussion. This turned out to be for the better
because I got almost everything I needed the next day. We'll have
to see how much of the good will lasts through this conference.
Thankfully everyone I've talked to that was also at last year's
conference say this looks much better organized. With the IFNA
meeting being held last on Sunday morning, I'm hoping it will
last at least that long and possibly even through the meeting.
At the end of the first day of the program my good
intentions on giving everyone a quick look over the conference
have died a quick death. While the opening ceremonies went
without any problem, I started having to type in quick notes (I
type faster than I write longhand). By the time the high speed
modem report was done, I had over 2 pages of "quick notes" and
things only got worse. By the end of the day I've got over 9
pages of these notes and it's going to take me a couple days just
to fully decrypt all of them. While I'm still going to try and
give you an overview of what going on at FidoCon, I am going to
be unable to go into any detail for the most of it. Instead I'll
be sending in a series of articles in addition to the regular
column and give everyone a proper report on the most interesting,
to me, presentations and events.
Things started picking up Friday morning with the report
from the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee. The basic report
went quickly with Ryugen Fisher, the Old Frog, managing to
FidoNews 4-32 Page 10 24 Aug 1987
lighten up an all too serious crowd. If things keep going along
as they are, we should be seeing a complete level one document (a
very complete version of what many of you have already seen) by
the end of the year. After the report, several people from the
floor were able to ask some good questions of the committee. By
the end of the question and answer period, we had already
started to fall behind the agenda and we weren't able to get back
on it until the banquet that evening.
The report on the high speed modems was perhaps one of the
longer reports on Friday, and it was unfortunately cut short just
to get on with the agenda (we may have gotten over an hour behind
if the question and answer period had been allowed). If all goes
well the question and answer period is going to be rescheduled
sometime over the next few days. Other than that, the reports
went well with some genuinely interesting information from Gee
Wong and Bob Hartman. Information on why the high speed modems
may not work well in certain circumstances, the pipe-lining
effect, and other problems that had been encountered with them.
The representatives from US Robotics and Telebit were than able
to give a short spiel about their products which was scheduled to
be followed the question and answer period. While Hayes was
present in the exhibition area, we were informed that it is a
company policy NOT to appear at talks like this one. I wish I
could give you a solid report on the modems yet, but I need to
talk to a few people and try to make some sense out of some of my
notes on their presentations. All I say is that Telebit appeared
to be much better prepared than US Robotics, and that the
Trailblazer sounds interesting.
After the report on the high speed modems there was a break
for lunch, and I spent an enjoyable lunch with Phil Ardussi,
Marshall Presnall (of Fido Utility), and Vince Perriello. While
the discussion between Vince and Marhsall was very interesting,
it did leave me in the dark in a lot of places. I may know a fair
amount about programming, but these two left me sitting at the
starting line. I was able to learn some of Vince's ideas on
speeding up bulletin boards. Among them having a special term
program to be used with a particular type of BBS program. Instead
of having to resend all the menus over and over, it would send
them once. The next time the user needed to see that menu, the
bbs would only have send a short code and the communications
program would redisplay the captured menu. I've always found
offbeat solutions to problems like this interesting and found
some of his ideas very interesting. I'm going to have to do a lot
of thinking on parts of the discussion, but be assured that once
I've come to a conclusion, you'll know what it is!
The afternoon program was split into two different parts.
One a technical program, which covered most of the IBM net
compatible software (some of them new releases since the last
conference) and a legal program. I decided to go to the technical
sessions, but will hopefully find someone to talk to on what
happened in the other room. First up was Tom Jennings, and Fido
version 12 is here! This long awaited version is ready. Be
forewarned that it is a commercial product, although there are
FidoNews 4-32 Page 11 24 Aug 1987
several different rates and specials that will be made available
to IFNA members, registered users and other groups. From
everything in the presentation, it is what many of us have been
looking for in Fido. I was able to get a copy later in the day
from Tom, and should be able to give a really solid report on it
in a few weeks.
The Opus presentation was one of less impressive to me. I am
familiar with Opus and although I haven't done a solid review and
test of the new version 1, I have started to look at it. After
a brief look at Opus by Vince Perriello it was opened up to
questions with Wynn Wagner answering. I found it interesting that
despite all the claims that his Opus has nothing to do with a
certain flightless waterfowl often seen in the Bloom County comic
strip, he was carrying a very suspicious looking stuffed animal.
While some of the questions were bug reports or problems people
were having, there was more than enough new ideas on things to
add to Opus to make it interesting. Among them Wynn's proposal
for a new user.bbs structure and an explanation of some of the
more unusual parts of Opus. I found it interesting that there are
three common methods for clearing a screen, and Opus uses all of
them. Wynn's personality helped keep what might have become very
down beat, bug reports, into something that was entertaining as
well as informative.
The next presentation was one that I found extremely
interesting, TBBS. Phil Becker, the author, had with him a
complete 16 line system. While it can only handle mail during
specified times, during which the board is down, the package
itself came close to leaving me speechless. Many of us in the net
have had no experience, and little knowledge of TBBS. Until this
presentation all I knew was that it was another bulletin board
program that had been made FidoNet and Echomail compatible,
mainly through the use of SEAdog. There was something about one
reasonably fast (8 mhz) AT running 16 users at once with little
degradation to the user that I found impressive. I had often
thought it would be interesting to write a piece of software that
would handle several different people at once, to find out that
it was actually being done astonished me. In addition to this the
board sounds to be very flexible on how it looks and what it can
do. Hopefully, I'll be doing a series of articles on in the near
future.
Last up was Henk Weaver with Dutchie. I was surprised to
find out that Dutchie originally started as a joke. Henk did a
wonderful job describing what Dutchie is and the slot it fills in
the net. Some of the people present had never heard of a point
and were very interested in the concept. Henk believes that in
the next 3 to 5 years we'll see the traditional bulletin board
vanish. Instead we'll use point systems for the greater
flexibility they can provide. Message base readers can keep up
with an enormous number of conferences without losing out due to
time limits. Those users who prefer the file areas would merely
request a master file list and pick the files they're interested
in acquiring and their system would proceed to go and get them.
FidoNews 4-32 Page 12 24 Aug 1987
The banquet was uneventful until near the end. Surprisingly
the meal was not as bland as usually found at a banquet. My
dinner companions were "Mort Sysop" and his wife, my local host
and his family, and the Looneys. Combined it made for a wonderful
dinner with the discussion including such topics as historical
points of interest to visit, the current educational system and
universities, and the success of some of the projects the
Looney's been involved with and have announced through FidoNews.
The speaker after the meal was George Bond, the Senior Executive
Editor of BIX (Byte Information Exchange). I learned that BIX has
much of its roots in Fido.
In addition to the history of BIX, George asked for any help
that could be provided to a special project going on in Central
and South America. The current war situation has caused several
diseases to reappear and the doctors in the areas have often
never seen or been trained to handle them. They had been thought
cured or eradicated years ago and it was never covered in their
schooling. Byte was asked if they knew of any way for a central
hospital to keep in touch with its doctors and help advise them.
At first some of the high tech people at Byte started going into
Microwave relays and satellite communications, until someone
realized that this a perfect application of Fido. He asked that
if we could spare some time (on the technical matters) or old
equipment, it would be greatly appreciated. For further
information on this you can contact him directly at Byte, their
address is near the front of every issue and address the letter
to George Bond. I think it is a great compliment that FidoNet has
been asked to help such a situation by providing some technical
know-how on the very methods its developed. This will prove to
many that we have come up with an important and useful
technology. This may become very important if the legislators
ever get involved with the bulletin board community.
I'm going to wind this down now. It's getting time for
another presentation and I've got to get this to Thom a few
hours from now. FidoCon has been utterly enjoyable so far and I
only wish that more had showed up. Next week the column will be
back to normal and you'll see my reports as articles appearing
over the next few weeks. In the meantime I always welcome your
comments and can be reached at any of the addresses listed below.
For those of you sending me mail through FidoNet, please have it
routed through 157/1 (157/0) as I'm currently a private node.
Dale Lovell
3266 Vezber Drive
Seven Hills, OH 44131
FidoNet 1:157/504.1
uucp:
decvax\
>!cwruecmp!hal\
cbosgd/ \
>!ncoast!lovell
FidoNews 4-32 Page 13 24 Aug 1987
ames\ /
talcott \ /
>!necntc/
harvard /
sri-nic/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-32 Page 14 24 Aug 1987
Todd C. Looney
SysOp, Vietnam Veterans Valhalla
IFNA (Opus 1.02) 143/27
TALK TO YOUR COMPUTER!
I recently had the good fortune to be introduced to a product
that I had so much fun playing with I just HAD to tell everyone
about it! It's called VoiceLink, and it's consists of a little
half-card that installs in seconds into any IBM compatible
computer mother-board. The micro-phone plugs right into the back
of the card, and the cord is long enough for me to lay back in my
chair and chatter away all day long without getting
uncomfortable. The software has an install program so it goes
onto your hard disk very quickly, and theirs only one diskette!
I've had one of these units in my home now for over a month now
and have programmed about 87 BBS-related words so far and all I
have to say is ... WOW! The ONLY problem I've had so far is
remembering the words I programmed into the system (grin). Other
than that, it's a snap to just walk up to my system, press the
ALT-SPACE keys, pick up the microphone, lean back and say "DO IT
BABALOO!" yes, you can program multiple word commands!)
At my verbal commands I go into Opus, tell it my name, my
password, bark out the menu commands, tell it to "CHANGE TO AREA
5!", "READ 195!", "NEXT MESSAGE", "REPLY AND KILL", etc. etc. I
even played around and programmed in all the keys on my keyboard
and if I want to just kick back and recite the letters to type,
it'll type out my message for me! No more little unnoticed slip
of the fingers so I have to go back and edit, GREAT!!!!
I must say I've really had a ball checking this product out, and
the offer of $195.00 made below by the manufacturers through the
Vietnam Veterans Valhalla is a fair and honest deal. It
installed in less than 10 minutes (just a half card...took me
longer to get the screws off the back of the computer!)
This product is worth the $195.00! It's worth the $395.00!!!!!!
Go for it...but don't dilly dally!
If you don't have the money now, call Bill Newton up and tell him
to put in your order and hold it for you (tell him Todd Looney at
the Vietnam Veterans Valhalla SAID SO!)
TALK TO YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER!!
FREE UP YOUR HANDS
FREE UP YOUR EYES
FREE UP YOUR MIND
WITH 400 VOICE COMMANDS!
ADD VOICE RECOGNITION TO YOUR IBM PC/XT/AT OR MOST COMPATIBLES !
FidoNews 4-32 Page 15 24 Aug 1987
--- ONLY $199.95 ---
INTERSTATE VOICE PRODUCTS MODEL SRB-LC
$199.95!
FACTORY SPECIAL FOR LIMITED TIME ONLY!
REGULAR LIST IS $395.00
BRAND NEW!
INCLUDES PLUG-IN HALF CARD
MICROPHONE, SOFTWARE, AND FULL FACTORY WARRANTY
FEATURES:
1. 400 WORD/PHRASE VOCABULARY (IE. 400 VOICE CONTROLLED
KEYBOARD MACROS. SAY, 'DIAL BBS' AND BOARD WOULD TYPE
'ATDTNNNNNNN<CR>') OR WHATEVER YOU PROGRAM IT TO TYPE.
2. SPEAKER DEPENDENT - YOU MUST TRAIN IT TO YOUR VOICE
(SECURITY+). NO ONE ELSE CAN TLAK TO YOUR COMPUTER UNLESS
YOU LET THEM!
3. DISCRETE WORD RECOGNIZER -- YOU MUST PAUSE BETWEEN
WORDS/PHRASES, BUT NO LONGER THAN YOU WOULD IN NORMAL
SPEECH.
4. HIGH RECOGNITION ACCURACY -- 98%+ RECOGNITION RATE.
5. RAM RESIDENT SOFTWARE -- REQUIRES NO USER SOFTWARE
MODIFICATION! MEMORY REQUIREMENTS - 256K FOR MOST APPLICATIONS
OF WHICH 64K IS USED FOR SRB-LC SOFTWARE. REMAINDER FOR DOS AND
APPLICATION.
6. COMPLETELY USER PROGRAMMABLE --- YOU DEFINE VOCABULARY AND
WHAT KEYSTROKES YOU WANT TYPED WHEN YOU SAY THE WORDS/PHRASES.
USE VOICE INPUT TO ELIMINATE KEYBOARD ERRORS, CUT COSTS, BOOST
YOUR PRODUCTION SPEED AND QUALITY.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR TO ORDER CONTACT:
BILL NEWTON
INTERSTATE VOICE PRODUCTS
1849 W. SEQUOIA AVE.
ORANGE, CA. 92668
PHONE: (714) 937-9010 (VOICE)
AGAIN, TELL BILL THAT YOU WANT THE SPECIAL VIETNAM VETERANS
VALHALLA OFFER!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-32 Page 16 24 Aug 1987
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
At a special session of the Board of Directors of the
International FidoNet Association held by teleconference on
Monday, 18 August 1987:
Whereas: An election for a new Board of Directors is now in
progress, and
Whereas: A strict interpretation of Article 11 of the Articles of
Association would disqualify the majority of the new board
nominees, therefore
Be it resolved: That Article 11 is hereby suspended until such
time as the newly elected Board of Directors can convene and
consider further action.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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 1:1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hello from Bartow, West Virginia!
Are there any National Youth Science Camp Alumni sysops
lurking out there in FidoNet-land. If so, please contact
Mike Jacobs, DE 85, 150/900.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Software Versions
BBS Systems Node List Other
& Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
Dutchie 2.51 EDITNL 3.3 ARC 5.21
Fido 11w LISTGEN 05.25.86 ARCmail 1.00
Opus 1.03* MakeNL 1.00 ConfMail 3.00
SEAdog 4.00 Prune 1.40 EchoMail 1.31
TBBS 2.0M XlatList 2.81 Renum 3.30
* 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
FidoNews 4-32 Page 17 24 Aug 1987
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-32 Page 18 24 Aug 1987
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
ORDER FORM
Publications
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
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
International orders include $5.00 for
surface shipping or $15.00 for air shipping _____
SUBTOTAL _____
Mo. Residents add 5.725 % Sales tax _____
TOTAL _____
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
IFNA
P.O. Box 41143
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 USA
Name________________________________
Net/Node____/____
Company_____________________________
Address_____________________________
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
Voice Phone_________________________
Signature___________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-32 Page 19 24 Aug 1987
__
The World's First / \
BBS Network /|oo \
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
_`@/_ \ _
| | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (jm)
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications. **
Name _________________________________ Date ________
Address ______________________________
City & State _________________________
Country_______________________________
Phone (Voice) ________________________
Net/Node Number ______________________
Board Name____________________________
Phone (Data) _________________________
Baud Rate Supported___________________
Board Restrictions____________________
Special Interests_____________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Is there some area where you would be
willing to help out in FidoNet?_______
______________________________________
______________________________________
Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to:
International FidoNet Association
P. O. 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
in formation and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted
by the membership in January 1987. An Elections Committee has
been established to fill positions outlined in the By-Laws for
the Board of Directors. An IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Elections Committee. We
welcome your input on this Conference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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