227 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
227 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
============================================================================
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THE SYNDICATE REPORT
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Information Transmittal No. 10
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Released April 16, 1987
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Featuring:
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BOC 800 Service Signals Major Changes (n wk 12\20)
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MultiBus II Goes Unix (ele engr 12\25)
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Software Publishers Step Up Anti-Piracy Actions in Canada (c.user 2\21)
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Hybrid Phone System (c.user 2\21)
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Lawmaker's proposal restricts computerized calls (s&t 4\15)
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by The Sensei
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Exposition:
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Once again, TSReport now excepts outside sources. Anyone can write/provide
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information to the Syndicate Report. The Syndicate Report is also altering
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format. Rather than concentrating mainly on BELL orientated information,
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the Syndicate Report now has a more broad interest. Thus, TSR now handles
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all types of news gatherings.
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All articles have been presented by me unless shown at the end of the
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article as the information provider(s).
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This transmittal is a little late, sorry.
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============================================================================
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BOC 800 SERVICE SIGNALS MAJOR CHANGES:
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An assistant vice president of Bell Communications Research said this
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month that the first application of a new signaling network and a group of
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Bell Comm. Research-developed specialized data bases will transform today's
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telephone system into the "Intelligent Network."
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Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Robert Robrock said
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the Bell operating companies (BOCs) are on the brink of the most significant
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network service introduction since customers first dialed long distance
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without the help of an operator 30 years ago.
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Robrock said the new network is reffered to as "intelligent" because
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call-handling equipment will no longer be limited to switches. He said its
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first application will be BOC 800 service.
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Business customers will be able to tailor their own BOC 800 service,
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Robrock said. They'll be able to choose a single, nationwide 800 number and
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select single or multiple carriers. They also can vary call distribution to
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destinations based on the time of day, day of week, the caller's are code,
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or other criteria.
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BOC 800 service will begin in BellSouth late next year. All the BOCs
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expect to be cut over by 1988. At that time, the network will be supporting
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10 billion 800 call attempts per year.
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The 800 service is only the first of many new services the network
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makes possible. Included are such services as area-wide Centrex (R) and a
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new billing procedure for CREDIT CARD CALLS that verifies the caller's
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identity before call completion.
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"A local switch no longer needs to contain all sorts of special call-
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handling information," Robrock said. "Rather, it only needs to send a query
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to the data base. Therefore, changing or adding a service could mean simply
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changing or adding information to the data base -- rather than updating
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hundreds of switches."
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============================================================================
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MULTIBUS II GOES UNIX:
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The first MultiBus II UNIX System V development system lets systems
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designers get up and running with a minimum fuss. The SDU-II from
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Microbar System Inc. is a complete development key with all the necessary
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ingredients.
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The heart of the system is Microbar's MT 68020 single-board computer
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with a 16.7-MHz 68020, a magabyte of dual-ported RAM (expandable to 4 Mbytes),
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SCSI disk and tape controller and a pair of RS-232 ports. The OS (operating
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system), Unix System C, Release 2, is fully loaded and preconfigured on a 40--
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Mbyte Winchester drive. The software includes sample drivers for several
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different peripherals and instructions for reconfiguring other user-supplied
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devices.
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Compared with VME, the 40-Mbyte-per-second MB II offers synchronous
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protocals for easier system design and improved noise immunity. The
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multiplexed bus with parity offers greater efficiency and reliability and it
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supports burst or sequential data transfers for maximum transfer rates, adds
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Sherrod. And, Multibus supports distributed bus arbitration that implements
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advanced multiple bus master configurations efficiently and includes will--
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defined secondary buses for optimum data, message and control transfers.
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:::::::::::::::::Information provided by Swingline Edison:::::::::::::::::::
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============================================================================
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SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS STEP UP ANTI-PIRACY ACTIONS IN CANADA:
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Through civil and criminal actions, software publishers are stepping
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up efforts to curb unauthorized copying of software in Canada. On Jan. 8,
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1987, Canada Judge Paul Rouleau ordered Montreal-based C&D Data Systems to pay
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36,000$ in damages to Concept Omega Corp. of Somerville, New Jersey, for
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illegaly reproducing copies of Concept Omega's Thoroughbred Software for
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PC-DOS, Unix, and Xenix systems.
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In addition, Judge Rouleau ordered C&D Data Systems to provide Concept
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Omega with a list of all illegal compies made and to replace unauthorized
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copies with legitimate copies, according to Roger Sparks, vice president of
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marketing for Concept Omega. Many customers did not know they were buying
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illegitimate copies of Thoroughbred, Sparks said, adding that C&D had sold
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both legitimate and illegitimate copies of the program.
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Concept Omega filed charges in Dec. and received a search and seizure
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order for its attorneys to enter C&D's offices and obtain evidence, Sparks
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said. The search and seizure was similar to an action recently taken by Lotus
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Development Corp., the Software Publishers Association, and six other software
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publishers against softsave Information Services Inc. of Cancouver, British
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Columbia ("Canadain Rental Firm charged with Copyright Infregement," Feb.
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5, 1987).
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The pursuit of illegal software copiers is not limited to civil actions
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in Canada, however. Recently, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials in
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Toronto brought criminal fraud charges against three rental firms in Toronto,
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according to RCMP Constable Pierre Riopel of the Toronto trademark copyright
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unit. The RCMP raided the firms to collect evidence and shut down the
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operations, Riopel said.
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Charged in the raid were Softcity of Scarborough, Ontario; Photo
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Insurance of Toronto; and Brent Muray Radbourne of Toronto, Riopel said.
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Fraud charges were filed because criminal copyright laws in Canada permit a
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maximum fine of 200$, Riopel said. Under fraud charges, defendants face
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stiffer fines and possible jail sentences.
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Radbourne's attorney confirmed that his client had allowed customers
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tocome to his business to make copies of the software for a fee. "The
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question is whether he did anything illegal," said Hy Bergal, a Toronto
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attorney. "The question is, are there proprietary rights to that software
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that belong to somebody else?"
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Canadian appellate courts are considering cases related to copying
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of BIOS code, which might clarigy the illegality of unauthorized software
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copying in Canada, said Robert Brouillette, partner at the Montreal law firm
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of Clark Woods, which represents Concept Omega.
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============================================================================
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HYBRID PHONE SYSTEM:
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There used to be a sharp divisin between the kind of Telephone system
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you found in a small business and the kind you found in a large corp. To put
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it simply, small businesses had key systems and large businesses had private
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automatic-branch exchanges. The electromechanical key system can have as few
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as two lines and four telephones (a 2 x 4 system), but seldom has more
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than 15 telephones (or stations or sets). Each station has a button for each
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line that blinks when the line is busy. With this arrangement, often called
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a squared system, each user knows which lines are in use and can answer
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any ringing line if the receptinist is busy.
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Electronic key systems, priced around 500$-600$ per station, have a
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similar config. They have a few additional microprocessor-controlled features
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like speed dialing and conference calling. You cn add more lines, but that
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meane,ks:1W-Kk:Ul4RkKWUQQ=9-Y
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At the other end of the monetary scale in the private branch exchange
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or PBX. At a cost of around 800$-1,000$ per sation, it can accommodate
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hundreds of users. You can expand it even further by adding modular
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circuit cards. Users do not know what calls are coming in because the
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receptionist fields them all at the front desk and switches them to the
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appropriate station.
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Private branch exchanges are microprocessor controlled and have
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considerable memory-GTE's Omni is equipped with 1 megabyte (MB) of RAM. and
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a 20MB hard disk. That opens the way for all kinds of data processing
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capabilities: itegrated voice-data transmission, networking within and among
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company locations, to name a few. Some manufacturers incorporate a telephone
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and data terminal in the individual station units.
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::::::::::::::::::Information provided by Ascii Py-Rat X:::::::::::::::::::
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============================================================================
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LAWMAKER'S PROPOSAL RETRICTS COMPUTERIZED CALLS:
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A funny thing happened to a man named Lakin the other day that boosted
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his hostility a bit: He got a call from a computer named John who, by all
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accounts, simply would not get off his telephone line. As a result, said
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Lakin, a free-lancer who does commercials and celebrity interviews for radio
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stations around the country, he missed a telephone interview that he had spent
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two weeks setting up.
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You thus can understand how Lakin's interest in the political process
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has perked up since he learned that Sen. Allan Spear, DFL-MN, introduced a bill
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in the Legislature to regulate these computerized forays into our living rooms.
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His complaint was that he tried to hang up, but that John the Computer
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held onto the line for what Lakin estimated was about 3 minutes. However,
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Central Telephone Co. which serves Lakin's, contended that its spiffy, up-to--
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date, good-as-Bell's electronic switching gear could not have allowed that to
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happen.
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The equipment is designed to force a disconnect within 15 seconds after
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the person being called hangs up. Most Bell companies use a 11-second lag.
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The delays are necessary because new telephone features -- call waiting and
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forwarding, for example -- are operated by the switch hook.
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============================================================================
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If there is any question to the information in this file, contact the
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author. Now can be found on the Private Sector 20 Meg, 3/1200 baud
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system at (201) 366-4431 (2600 Magazine Bulliten Board).
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============================================================================
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This concludes this transmittal No. 10 provided by:
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The Sensei of The Syndicate Report
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Released April 16, 1987
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============================================================================
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