home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Aminet 15
/
Aminet 15 - Nov 1996.iso
/
Aminet
/
comm
/
fido
/
fnews3.lzh
/
fido325.nws
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1986-06-29
|
52KB
|
1,155 lines
Volume 3, Number 25 30 June 1986
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| - FidoNews - /|oo \ |
| (_| /_) |
| Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ |
| Users Group | | \ \\ |
| Newsletter | (*) | \ )) |
| ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (C) Copyright 1986 by IFNA (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate.
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL
FidoNet Business Meeting
View from the Top - ECHOMAIL
2. ARTICLES
An Introduction to ASCII
A Warning about PC's Limited
"C"
TROJAN HORSE ALERT
3. COLUMNS
Hard Disk Usage and Management Tips, Part 1
4. FOR SALE
Entertainment Software for your PC!
Public Domain Software Library Sale!!
5. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
Starting a conference for the Mindset PC
Faculty Position Available - Computer Science
Fidonews Page 2 30 Jun 1986
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
This week's guest editorial is by Ken Kaplan, the International
FidoNet Coordinator.
FidoNet Business Meeting
We're finally getting IFNA set up as a non-profit corporation.
This has several benefits, the main one being that we can now go
hit some of the major corporations for grants. With any luck,
this will provide for most of our operating expenses one day.
Meanwhile, thanks to all of you who have donated. Without your
help, we wouldn't have the seed money to get this thing going.
But a corporation needs to do certain things. One of the things
we need to do is have an annual business meeting, to do things
like report on finances, vote on officers, and such. The first
IFNA business meeting will be held during the upcoming
International FidoNet conference in Colorado Springs.
One of the things we'll have to discuss is how to organize these
meetings. For now, we are assigning one vote to each network and
region. So if you're a network host or a regional coordinator,
please try to make it. If you can't make it, then please find
someone in your net or region who IS going, and make them your
representative. Please send a message to me at 1/0 letting me
know if you'll be there, or who you've picked to represent you.
If there's anything in particular you'd like to see discussed,
then send me a note about it. All suggestions are welcome.
Please try to make it to Colorado in August. Sally and I will be
there, and we're looking forward to meeting you at last.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
View from the Top
ECHOMAIL
by Ben Baker - Fido 100/76
Much has been said in the past few weeks, in these pages and
elsewhere, about EchoMail. Packed in the archive with this
newsletter is a file, POLICY2.DOC, an update of the prior policy
document. It sets forth the "official" IFNA view on EchoMail.
I'd like to set down some of my own views and to perhaps
shed some light on the thought processes underlying the
formulation of the new policy document.
I consider EchoMail to be a very good thing for FidoNet,
which is, after all, a communications network. Many of us have
beaten our heads against the wall trying to get our users to
communicate via FidoNet with, at best, only limited success.
Fidonews Page 3 30 Jun 1986
EchoMail seems to be succeeding where pleading and coercion
failed, probably because many don't realize they are using the
network when they enter a message in an EchoMail conference area.
It's no different than entering a message in any other "normal"
message area.
But EchoMail can be both a blessing and a curse. It has
raised the level of traffic considerably. In and of itself, this
is not bad. FidoNet is nowhere near saturation, but there are
choke points.
FidoNet's original intent was, and it remains, to provide
fast, economical point-to-point electronic communications. Our
standard of service goal is over-night delivery of point-to-point
messages. Many things beyond our control can prevent the
achievement of this goal. But EchoMail is (or should be) within
the scope of our control. It must not be permitted to interfere
with point-to-point communications.
Just how does EchoMail interfere? The biggest burden is
placed on the network hosts, and they have two different kinds of
problems with EchoMail; communications saturation and disk
storage problems.
Consider the plight of the bi-directional host, the guy who
both receives and sends mail for his network. Since he must
listen for incomming calls between his outgoing calls, he can
make at most twenty to thirty call attempts during the FidoNet
one-hour mail window. If he has a (very good) 75% success rate,
he can expect to send out about eighteen to twenty-two packets a
night. An already busy host can easily be swamped by two or
three locals, each engaged in two or three different EchoMail
conferences.
But what of the out-bound host who doesn't have to worry
about incomming calls. He can operate in a send-only mode and
make rapid fire calls. Fido 100/10 has successfully sent as many
as forty packets in a single night, and averages twenty or more.
It takes a lot to saturate his ability to communicate, but he has
another problem with EchoMail. He operates on the thin edge of
poverty where free disk space is concerned!
When you do a DIR in a message area and see all those tiny
two to three hundred byte message files, you tend to think your
capacity to hold them must be nearly infinite, but not so! DOS
allocates a minimum of one full cluster (that's four kilobytes,
folks) to every message!
Worse yet, point-to-point messages tend to be short and
concise. Usually they are are four or five liners stating a
single point of information. On the other hand, the nature of
EchoMail tends to encourage long messages. When you expound on a
philosophy or support an opinion with convincing argument, you
tend to use a lot of words.
Now consider a hypothetical situation. You're a host and on
Fidonews Page 4 30 Jun 1986
a particular night two of you locals each have six new messages
in some conference area for which they each mail to five other
participants. They each send you a packet of thirty messages.
In packet form the messages average say 4K, so you need 240K to
store the two packets. At the end of the collection schedule you
unpack the packets, and the messages expand to an average of 6K
because DOS only allocates space in 4K chunks. So you have to
find room for 320K worth of messages. Of course you delete the
first packet before you unpack the second, so your high water
mark so far is only 540K. But now comes the FidoNet schedule,
and you must packetize all those messages without deleting any of
them! You build ten outgoing packets of 28K each (allocation
granularity) and you now have 600K tied up in EchoMail to handle
ten innocent messages! Oops! You only had 580K when the night
began, so you got the "Disk Full!" message when building packets,
and YOU DIDN'T SEND ANYBODY ANY MAIL AT ALL!!!
A similar scenario would illustrate that the in-bound host
is succeptible to exactly the same problem!
So here's the IFNA point of view. The network host has an
obligation to strive for the standard of service of over-night
delivery of point-to-point mail. He should attempt to support
EchoMail so long as it doesn't interfere with his first priority.
When it does, he has the right, nay the duty, to impose
restrictions on the EchoMail users. Imposed restrictions are not
punitive, but merely the ordering of priorities, and EchoMailers
are expected to cooperate. The degree of restriction will depend
on the severity of the specific problem and will be entirely up
to the affected host. We want to encourage EchoMail and see it
work, but not to the detriment of FidoNet.
That would have been all I had to say, but here's a new
wrinkle not covered by POLICY2.DOC (because we didn't think of it
until a situation was brought to our attention). What are the
special responsibilities of a network host who participates in
one or more EchoMail conferences? How do you resolve the issue
when his activities begin to impact his locals who don't
themselves participate? I'd like to hear your ideas on this.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 5 30 Jun 1986
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
An Introduction to ASCII
The proper and correct names for all those funny characters on
your keyboard, and in computer related text. Here is the correct
explanation. Ignore all others; this is of course the absolute
truth.
ASCII characters sometimes use parity; parity is a method of
confusing your computer into thinking that the characters sent
are something that they are not. Parity has no practical use in
real life; large computers use parity as part of their religion.
Space. You can't see it there.
! Surprise mark; dammit; Incorrectly called "exclamation
point" by foolish grade school teachers. Usually you will
find either none or too many; every! other! word! will!
have! one! or! more!!!
" Quote; double quote. Usually put around words the author is
afraid he doesn't understand; for computer programs, it is
the latter.
# pound; sharp; it must be called either pound or sharp, even
though it never means either. This is a secret password
into computer priesthood.
$ bucks; or, as originated by Digital Research, "the end".
Actually, as far as DRI goes, its pretty prophetic ...
% percent; Used in drawing ugly boxes around useless text, as
in bulletin boards and the like.
& and, in logical expressions; ampersand elsewhere. It looks
nice and is hard to draw by hand. Let your printer do it.
' little quote; single quote; apostrophe to ignoramuses.
Since it is very small and hard to see, some computer
languages use it as an important operator.
( paren; left paren; open paren; or parenthesis, which is way
too long a word. Used to correct compiler bugs in operator
precedence, or by incompetents who cannot memorize a few
hundred simple rules.
) paren; right paren; close paren; parenthesis. See above.
* star; blob; blatz; asterisk. Yet another horrible character
used to draw boxes. Like most of these, it is used far too
often to be of any use.
Fidonews Page 6 30 Jun 1986
+ plus; "and" if you're sloppy. Connects things together, and
is sometimes used by people who want to draw boxes but can't
afford graphics.
, comma; what can I say?
- minus if near a number; dash otherwise. Some word
processors try to fool you that a bunch of these in a row
is really the end of a page; we know better than that.
. point if near a number; dot otherwise. Three dots together
(like ...) can be called "dotdotdot", but it is really an
ellipsis. This is another test for computer priesthood.
/ slash; divided by; a good compiler will find many
different, conflicting uses for this in different contexts.
0-9 You know these. 0 is not "oh", it's zero, and is greater
than 9, as we all know.
: colon; I have heard that human colons do not resemble this
in the slightest.
; semicolon. (Actually, its more than a colon, not part of
one, it has a tail, but alas ...)
< angle bracket; less than. Can be put to great use when
attempting to define the syntax for a computer program,
like so:
PROGRAM ARGUMENT [optional { ...<required> } ]
= equals
> angle bracket; greater than
? question mark; what; denotes confusion.
@ blob; at; bang. Usually what your terminal displays just
before going south with all your days work.
A-Z If I have to tell you ...
[ bracket; square bracket
\ backslash. There is usually a slash (regular style) to be
found near by to check that you are paying attention.
] bracket; square bracket
^ hat; incorrectly called caret. Sometimes means "Control-",
as in "Control-C", syntactically similar to "Shift-A". ^A
is to a as A is to a. Sometimes used to cause arithmetic
overflows; as in 100^5000.
_ Underscore; incorrectly called underline. This is a
Fidonews Page 7 30 Jun 1986
wonderful character, because you really can't underscore
another character without writing a long letter to your
word processor, requesting it do do so.
a-z See note above on A - Z
` accent; backwards quote (sic). Not used in any computer
worth anything. These are meant to be deleted when found.
{ wiggly bracket; squiggly bracket; incorrectly called brace.
While you may think it is like angle brackets and square
brackets, it most definitely is not.
| bar; vertical line. Why does it have that little piece
missing?
} wiggly bracket; squiggly bracket; incorrectly called brace.
~ wiggle; squiggle; traditionally called a tilde, which is
obscure enough to continue using. Only very good languages
find a use for this. It is extremely hard to see,
especially when near a dash, little quote or back quote.
Aha! Can't see that either! Its a delete!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 8 30 Jun 1986
Robert Briggs, 15/464
WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
I've been ripped off to the tune of $700 by PC's Limited, 7801 N.
Lamar, Suite E-200, Austin, TX.
This whole situation started on the 27th of March, 1985 when I
originally ordered the drive. I used the drive to bring up Fido
node 15/464, and used it for about 5 weeks. Unfortunately, the
drive that I originally obtained from PC's Limited was faulty, it
crashed almost weekly, and each time it was re-formatted, it had
more and more bad sectors show up. It was returned to them for
repair. It came back "Dead On Arrival" - the person responsible
for Quality Controlling the drive failed to retract the heads,
this resulted in a bad track 0 which made the drive unusable. I
had since purchased a larger drive, and had made arrangements to
sell the drive to someone else. Needless to say, the buyer was
no longer interested in buying a hard disk from me.
The drive was once again shipped back to them on June 7th, 1985,
accompanied by a letter requesting a refund. (it is interesting
to note that the RMA number issued the second time was 3436, the
first RMA was 2973 - that means that in a period of roughly 2
weeks, PC's Limited had 493 defective products shipped back to
them!)
There was no response to my letter, nor any repaired drive
returned. I was unable to contact the person who was responsible
for handling refunds. Two months later, I sent the following
letter addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of PC's Limited:
Robert S. Briggs
P.O. Box 7175
Murray, UTAH 84107-0175
08 August, 1985
Dear Sir:
It has now been over 60 days since I returned my disk
drive to your company for a refund, and nearly six months
sine I originally purchased the drive, (which has never
worked correctly). While I (am) normally quite patient, this
situation is causing me to become angry enough to take some
rather strong measures to recover my money. Unless I receive
my $695.00 refund check by the 21st of August, 1985, I intend
to do the following:
1. Send a copy of this letter and a formal letter of
complaint to Byte magazine, PC magazine, and any other major
magazine that I can find one of your advertisements in.
2. Publish a copy of this letter in the public domain, and a
Fidonews Page 9 30 Jun 1986
warning about both the type of service and equipment that you
seem to be providing. In addition, I will request that
anyone reading that warning distribute it to any other
bulletin boards that they use. I expect that such a warning
would be distributed to well over 2000 bulletin boards in a
matter of several weeks, making this letter available to well
over 200,000 readers by the middle of September. This could
have a great impact on your sales...
The situation is becoming ludicrous; I have been unable to
contact the mysterious Tammy (the person handling refunds) in
nearly two months of calling two days a week. A typical days
worth of calls (my local time) goes something like this:
9:00 a.m. Not in yet 10:00 a.m. Not in yet
10:30 a.m. Not in yet 11:00 a.m. Out to lunch
12:00 p.m. Out to lunch 12:30 p.m. Out to lunch
1:00 p.m. Out to lunch 1:30 P.m. Out to lunch
2:30 p.m. Out on break
3:30 p.m. Left for the day - try tomorrow
I have enclosed a copy of my invoice; my original copy of
the charge slip was sent in the last time I returned the
drive for repair. The last return of the drive was under RMA
#3436, the drive was "DEAD ON ARRIVAL" when returned from RMA
#2973 repair (due to the heads not being retracted when the
drive was shipped back to me).
I would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter,
and hope that this whole situation can be settled swiftly and
in a friendly manner.
Sincerely,
Robert S. Briggs
After another month with no reply from PC's Limited, in
frustration, I sent the following letter to the advertising
editors of several magazines, PC-TECH, PC WORLD, etc.
Robert Briggs
P.O. Box 7175
Murray, UT 84107-0175
(801) xxx-xxxx
XXXXX Magazine
Advertising Manager
xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxs xxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx, xx xxxxx
Fidonews Page 10 30 Jun 1986
August 29th, 1985
Dear Advertising Editor,
I would like to make a formal complaint against one of
the companies that advertises in your magazine. It has been
nearly six months since I first ordered a 20 megabyte drive
from PCS Ltd., (the drive was originally ordered in March of
1985), and in that time they have failed to deliver me a
either a functional disk drive, or the refund that I have
been requesting for over two months now.
Enclosed please find a copy of a letter that I sent to
the Chief Executive Officer of PCS Ltd. on August 8, 1985.
There has been no response to this letter. As nearly as I
can tell, I have simply been "ripped-off" for the sum of
$695.00. If there is any way that you can assist me in
recovering the original sum, I would be pleased, I have
already "written off" the money spent in long distance phone
calls and shipping.
Unless I can recover my money in the near future, I am
going to place a description of what I have been through and
copies of the correspondence into the public domain with a
request that it be distributed as widely as possible. It is
a last resort and a one way step - once done it can not
easily be undone - but maybe I can get some satisfaction out
of keeping other people from making the same mistake. I am
not vindictive and would be more than happy to let the whole
matter drop upon receipt of a check for what I am owed.
I would certainly appreciate any help that you could
give me in this matter.
Sincerely,
Robert S. Briggs
On September 13th, 1985, I received the following letter from
Byte magazine. It is nice to know that at least one of the
magazines was interested and courteous enough to reply. Looks
like I will have to re subscribe to BYTE magazine....
September 10, 1985
Mr. Robert Briggs
P.O. Box 7175
Murray, UT 84107-0175
Dear Mr. Briggs:
This is in response to your letter of August 29, a copy of
which we are forwarding to PC's Limited. Rest assured that
Fidonews Page 11 30 Jun 1986
we shall use whatever influence we have to get them to
satisfactorily respond to your complaint. Please also try to
understand that it is impossible, both logistically and
legally for us to try to resolve all disputes between
advertisers in BYTE and their customers.
The best we can do is to provide a conduit to start
communication between the advertiser and the customer, and to
cease offering advertising space in our magazine to an
advertiser when a clear pattern of unresolved customer
problems appear. With your complaint, we are sincerely
attempting to facilitate discussion between the parties which
could lead to an appropriate resolution.
We are asking both you and PC's Limited to keep us posted on
any results obtained from our transactions. Thanks you very
much for your patience and information.
Sincerely,
xxxxx x. xxxxxxx
Customer Relations
Here is my reply to the Byte Magazine letter:
Robert Briggs
P.O. Box 7175
Murray, UT 84107-0175
(801) xxx-xxxx
BYTE MAGAZINE
Attn: xxxxxx x. xxxxxxx
70 Main Street
Peterborough, NH 03458
October 7, 1985
Dear xx. xxxxxxx,
This is in reply to your letter of September 10, 1985,
concerning PC's Limited. I believe that I have allowed a
sufficient time for PC's Limited to reply, so I must
regretfully state that I have received absolutely no
correspondence from them. I must also assume that they have
chosen to not reply because they have no intention of issuing
me a refund - they have simply "ripped me off" to the tune of
$700.
I hope that there is some pressure that you can exert on
Fidonews Page 12 30 Jun 1986
them as advertisers in your magazine. I am also going to
correspond with the Attorney Generals Office, consumer
complaint division, and the Better Business Bureau of Austin
Texas, in hopes of getting some response (i.e. a refund) from
them.
I am preparing to distribute all of the correspondence
to date to each of the nodes in the FIDO network (watch your
BYTE bulletin board, all of this information will be
distributed under the file name RIPOFF$.700 or pc-ltd.rip or
something similar) and will request that it be passed along
to any bulletin board that the users know of, and I hope to
have copies of all of this correspondence published in
several IBM-PC specific newsletters. This action should make
this whole situation available to approximately 200,000
readers in a matter of roughly two weeks, and could reach a
million PC users, by word of mouth, in roughly a month.
I do not understand why PC's Limited is forcing me to
pursue such an unfriendly course of action. I am not
alleging mail fraud, but I think that anyone is entitled to a
refund and a letter of explanation after attempting to obtain
a working product or refund for over six months.
Thank you for your time and the help that you and Byte
Magazine have given me.
Sincerely,
Robert S. Briggs
SYSOP of FIDO 15/464
A copy of the original letter to the advertising managers
suitably modified, (below) has been sent to the Austin Texas
Attorneys office, and the Austin Better Business Bureau.
Robert Briggs
P.O. Box 7175
Murray, UT 84107-0175
(801) xxx-xxxx
City Government Building
Attorney Generals Office
Consumer Complaint Division
Austin, TX 78752
Fidonews Page 13 30 Jun 1986
October 7th, 1985
Dear Sir,
I would like to make a formal complaint against a
company doing mail order sales based in your city. It has
been nearly six months since I first ordered a 20 megabyte
drive (some computer equipment) from PC's Limited, 7801 N.
Lamar, Suite E-200, Austin 78752, (the equipment was
originally ordered in March of 1985), and in that time they
have failed to deliver me a either a functional disk drive,
or the refund that I have been requesting for over three
months now.
Enclosed please find a copy of a letter that I sent to
the Chief Executive Officer of PCS Ltd. on August 8, 1985,
and copies of other correspondence with various magazines
that they advertise in. There has been no response
whatsoever from PC's Limited, and, as nearly as I can tell, I
have simply been "ripped-off" for the sum of $695.00. If
there is any way that you can assist me in recovering the
original sum, I would be pleased, I have already "written
off" the money spent in long distance phone calls and
shipping.
I would certainly appreciate any help that you could
give me in this matter. I am not alleging mail fraud, but
the whole situation has dragged on for over 7 months now, and
I feel that a refund should have been forthcoming long before
now, from an honest company.
Sincerely,
Robert S. Briggs
As yet, there have been no replies to the latest round of
correspondence.
I guess that I have to leave it up to you, the reader to decide
whether I have been too harsh on a company that failed to deliver
me a working product after more than 6 months, and who seems to
refuse to issue me a refund.
If you can, give this file the widest distribution that you have
available. Maybe someone else will avoid getting ripped off by
this company. Maybe even you...
If you are really into such things, how about sending a letter to
PC's Limited telling them that you have read this article, and
Fidonews Page 14 30 Jun 1986
have no intention of purchasing anything from them because of it.
Anyone having similar problems with this company might drop a
letter to the BYTE Magazine Customer relations department, urging
them to remove PC's Limited from their advertising.
You can keep current on the situation and get any further
bulletins from my board at (801) 264-8290.
Robert S. Briggs SYSOP FIDO 15/464 (801) 264-8290
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 15 30 Jun 1986
"C"
Peeple have bin noan to objekt to my spelling. I am going to take
this oportunity to fite bak.
The problem is not with my spelling, it is with written English.
As an example, the letter "c" serves no purpose in written
English. For the hard "c" as in "cat", a "k" works perfektly
well. For a soft "c" as in "city", a "s" kan be used. The only
other "c" is the "ch" sutsh as is found in "such".
In fakt the only exkuse for the letter "c" in the English
language is for proper names (peeple, plases, and things).
"California", "Charles", and "Chineese" (refering to the
language) should probably be spelt the obsolete way, at least
till there is an oportuinity to tshange them on maps and other
rekords. Of koarse I see no reason they kould not be refered to
as "Kalifornia", "Tsharles", and "Tshineese" but there may be a
some unnessessary konfushun.
One interesting example is the "Programming Language C". "C"
kould be redefined to treat the symbols "c" or "C" as speshul
reserved operators. The statement "c name" kould be defined to
run "name" where "name" is a string with the name of a "c"
program. Identifiers and reserved words kould be denied the
alfabetik use of "c".
There are many other problems I find with written English. I will
leave solutions to them to the reader. I have purposly not made
an attempt here to korrekt all of the follies of our language
(nor have I made any partikular effort to follow them).
Lloyd Miller
"Calgary" (Kalgary), Alberta
Fidonet 134/1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 16 30 Jun 1986
*** W A R N I N G ***
TROJAN HORSE ALERT
FIDOPROM.COM
Well, we have a new one. This program claims to be written by
Tom Jennings:
Welcome to the Fido prompt writer
Written by: Tom Jennings
Intended for use with Fido Versions 11v - 11w ONLY
Copyright 1986, Tom Jennings
I just got off the phone with Tom, and HE DID NOT WRITE IT! The
first clue was that it is written in TURBO PASCAL. Tom only
writes in C or ASM. Next, the cute dialog in the file is
atypical of what Tom does. From looking at the strings in the
program (using CHK4BOMB), I guess that it will either delete your
USER.BBS file, or copy it to another file (REPORTS.PAS), where it
could be downloaded at some later date. Interestingly enough,
another "new user" was on the next day, searching all the file
areas for files of the type indicated in the program.
It was uploaded to both 109/74 and 109/483 within 1 hour of each
other. If you have received a copy of this "gift", I would
appreciate getting any information you might have on the fool who
uploaded it.
And, if you have run it, I would like to know what happened.
SYSOP
109/74 - The Bear's Den
109/483 - Wash-A-RUG
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 17 30 Jun 1986
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
Taking Advantage of Your PC's Hard Disk:
Part I, File Management
Barry Gordon
New York Personal Computer, Inc.
This article is about organizing files on any hard disk attached
to a member of the IBM PC family, including the PC with an
Expansion Unit, and certainly, the PC AT. The following
suggestions have evolved from several months of using the IBM PC
XT as a follow-on system to the IBM PC. I hope these thoughts
prove useful to those who work with hard disks on the IBM PC,
particularly those who are new to it.
File Management
The hard disk is not merely an overgrown diskette. It can be
used that way, but you would be inviting serious file management
problems in doing so. The hard disk has other capabilities you
should utilize, and there is no reason not to take full advantage
of the hard disk's potential.
About the last thing you want to deal with is a ten megabyte hard
disk containing all its files in one directory. (There is a limit
of how many files the root directory can contain, so the disk may
give you an error message even though much of the disk is not
filled.) With intelligent organization, the hard disk retains its
speed advantage over the diskette, and you are better able to
keep track of your files as well. The name of each file should
use filename and the three-letter extension. Sooner or later you
will need all the help you can get in remembering what each file
contains. Most importantly, though, your files should be
organized among several directories.
The Root Directory
Each DOS volume (diskette or hard disk) has a root directory
which DOS creates when it formats the disk. The root directory
on your hard disk should contain a minimum of files, reserving
the space for sub-directory names.
Nonetheless, a few files are essential in the root directory.
When you format the hard disk, use the /S parameter: FORMAT C:/S
which copies three .COM files to your hard disk:
(IBMBIO.COM)
(IBMDOS.COM)
COMMAND.COM
Notice that the first two are hidden files. You won't see them
in any DIRectory listing, but the CHKDSK command will tell you
they are there.
Fidonews Page 18 30 Jun 1986
You should store the various DOS external command files and all
data files in other sub-directories.
Sub-directories for Executable Files
Now let's consider locating your various executable program
files--the .EXE, .COM, and .BAT files. You'll want to separate
related programs into sub-directories of their own. For example,
you may want one sub-directory containing all of the external DOS
commands, another sub-directory with your word processing .COM
and .EXE files, another with your accounting .COM and .EXE files,
etc. until you have stored all of your executable programs into
sub-directories. They are much easier to remember this way.
The root directory has no user-assigned name, but all sub-
directories are specifically created and named using the MKDIR
command, MD for short:
MD anyname
You can create as many levels of sub-directories as you like, but
generally, the fewer levels you have to create, the simpler your
directory structure will be. There will be times when a second-
or third-level sub-directory is needed (a directory created
within another sub-directory), but multi-leveled sub-directories
create a more complex path structure for both you and DOS to sort
through.
Directory Sizes
You can fill a sub-directory with as many bytes as the disk will
allow, but it is often convenient to limit the size of those sub-
directories into which you regularly store data to the capacity
of a single diskette, 320-360 KB. This allows you to back up a
directory using the COPY command:
COPY C:*.* A:
The COPYable directory size offers an alternative to the BACKUP
and RESTORE commands, an alternative that many find easier to
use. It offers portability as well as backup. If you want to
verify the copy with its original, you can follow the COPY
command with this:
COMP C: A:
However, if you feel confident using the BACKUP and RESTORE
commands, the contents of a single sub-directory can be as many
bytes as you like. The bigger it is, the more time consuming the
backup process becomes.
Another suggestion is to give each backup diskette a volume
label. This is especially useful if you use the COPY command to
back up your sub-directories. By using the /V parameter when you
format the diskette, you can label your diskette with the same
name as the directory it backs up.
Fidonews Page 19 30 Jun 1986
It is rarely necessary to back up the entire hard disk.
Typically, you store data changes in the files of a few sub-
directories, those few being the only sub-directories you need to
back up regularly. Many sub-directories never change, and need
backing up only once.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 20 30 Jun 1986
=================================================================
FOR SALE
=================================================================
ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC!
SUPERDOTS! KALAH!
Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the
author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the
popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT
options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring
skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games
use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS
device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on
the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both
exciting games! Please specify version and disk format.
These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and
run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80,
CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but
minor customization may be required.
BSS Software
P.O. Box 3827
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido
coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH
and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also
be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE
CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also
appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review.
Questions and comments can be sent to:
Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17
(609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 21 30 Jun 1986
Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!!
Public Domain collection - 550+ "ARC" archives - 20+ megs of
software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When
unpacked, you get approximately 28 megabytes worth of all kinds
of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes
to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... Over
55 DS/DD diskettes!!
This collection is the result of more than 15 months of intensive
downloads from just about 150 or more BBS's and other sources,
all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your
convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on
to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This
is the answer!!!
To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check,
postal money order or company purchase order) to:
Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511
Post Office Box 4296
200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard
Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296
Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order.
Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain
software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to
the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines,
running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting,
cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this
software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem
using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what
we charge for the service...
Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be
prepared on. The following choices are available:
- IBM PC-DOS Backup utility
- Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility
- DSBackup
- Fastback
- ACS INTRCPT 720k format
- Plain ol' files (add $50)
Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more
expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges.
California residents add 6% tax.
For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 22 30 Jun 1986
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
20 Jul 1986
St. Louis Area Sysops Meeting, to be held at Baker's Acre.
Net 100 sysops please contact Ben Baker at 100/76 for details
and directions.
14 Aug 1986
Start of the International FidoNet Conference, Colorado
Springs, Colorado. Contact George Wing at node 1/10 for
details. Get your reservations in NOW! We'll see you there!
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
James Pallack, 16/635
MINDSET Conference using EchoMail
I am looking for Fido's around the U.S. that are willing to
participate in a conference for the MINDSET computer. This would
be using the EchoMail software and dedicating a message section
to the conference.
If you are interested or am willing to have this conference on
your BBS. Please contact me via FidoNet at 16/635. If you are
interested in participating, but don't have the funds for the
service, please contact me anyway. Arrangements can be worked
out (e.g. I'll pick up the mail).
Currently I have locations in Sunnyvale, CA (143/20) and New York
City (107/102).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Faculty Position Available - Computer Science
Position Description: Full-time, tenure track position to teach
various computer science core courses
which emphasize programming languages and
data structures. Will also teach upper
division courses in Operating Systems,
Compilers and Formal Language Theory.
Salary and Rank: Assistant Professor of Computer Science,
Fidonews Page 23 30 Jun 1986
salary dependant upon qualifications and
experience.
Qualifications: M.S. or Ph.D. in computer science. Strong
interest in undergraduate teaching and
developing a computer science program in a
liberal arts setting. Classroom teaching
experience and a working knowledge of UNIX
are preferred.
Appointment Date: August 25, 1986
Closing Date: Open until filled, immediate applications
accepted.
The University: Pacific University is a small, independant
liberal arts institution with an
enrollment of about 1100 students. The
university is composed of the College of
Arts and Sciences and the College of
Optometry. The computer science offerings
are within the Department of Mathematical
Sciences. The Department of Mathematical
Sciences offers a major and a minor in
Computer Science, a cooperative BS/MS
program in Computer Science with the
Oregon Graduate Center, and a major and a
minor in Mathematics.
The Community: The city of Forest Grove has a population
of about 14,000. It is located 25 miles
west of Portland, within an hour's drive
to the Oregon coast, and two hours to the
Cascade Mountains.
Hiring Policy: Pacific is an affirmative action, equal
opportunity employer.
To Apply: Send letter of application, vita, three
letters of recommendation and official
transcripts to:
Douglas J. Ryan
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Pacific University
Forest Grove, OR 97116
-----------------------------------------------------------------
