Volume 3, Number 30 11 August 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (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. Copyright (C) 1986, 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. 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 Witholding Information and Morality 2. ARTICLES In Rememberence Of... New FidoBBS from Computertown UK! An IBM-PC Compatibility Testing Program Computerfest '86 What is a Julian Date? New Outside Utility Available for Sysop's One Man's Opinion of PC-WRITE New Utility Reports Questionnaire Results New Fido BBS for Vietnam Veterans! 3. COLUMNS Subscripts, WordStar and Epson Computer Industry Spotlight 4. WANTED Wanted: IBM PC programs for publication! 5. FOR SALE Entertainment Software for your PC! Fidonews Page 2 11 Aug 1986 Public Domain Software Library Sale!! 6. NOTICES FidoNews Bugs: The Missing Issue The Interrupt Stack CARTOON: Generic George, by Bruce White dBASE EchoMail Area Fidonews Page 3 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= This week's guest editorial is by Ron Chapple of 17/36, in Victoria, British Columbia. Have You the Right to Withold Information? Do we have the right to information? Is someone immoral if they withhold information from me? Peter de Jager asked these questions in FidoNews 3:22 and concluded that even death can occur as the result of withholding information with the withholder being blameless! I would be interested to know whether Mr. de Jager perceives criminal negligence in the same way as a court of law. Mr. de Jager has made some far-reaching conclusions based primarily on the cost of collecting and processing data. He describes the cost of the processing of data into information as "energy". The logic of the arguments used to defend the conclusions is clear enough: the collector and supplier of processed data has expended energy and therefore the user of the processed data must pay the energy cost (no doubt plus a reasonable profit) to access the information. Despite his initial questions, what is missing from Mr. de Jager's discussion is, in fact, the whole question of morality. Furthermore, the estimation of energy costs is insufficient and misplaced. Let us deal with a few examples of energy cost and morality. Consider the case of a child crossing a street in the path of a vehicle. It no doubt would cost some energy to shout or to dash out to save the child, but what is your moral position if you don't? Collecting the data in this case would not seem to be costly, but ask any parent of a small child, whether it is your own child or another's, where life is even possibly at risk you SPEND the energy regardless and frequently. You have the information, the fact that you are not likely to convert it into cash isn't the point. The point is that someone else needs it and you are wrong if you don't provide it. If, on an evening stroll, you see flames through a window you know what your moral obligations are; at the very least you must turn in an alarm. If you demand a reward before doing so then you aren't a member of the human race. Lest these examples be accused of the fallacy of the extreme case, I would like to examine Mr. de Jager's example of the "private weather bureau". To briefly restate his arguments, the operators of the weather bureau spend energy (money) to collect raw data, spend energy (money) to process it into synopses and predictions and therefore have the right to sell the information to whomever can or wants to pay the price. All this sounds good to me. Even if I don't choose to buy the information myself, I Fidonews Page 4 11 Aug 1986 agree that my life has been made richer by the presence of the option to buy the information. That is as far as Mr. de Jager's argument goes and it is just not far enough! John Donne said "no man is an island" and in this context let us see what energy costs the operators of the "private weather bureau" owe by default to society. Were they educated in the public school system? Did they attend a university funded in part from the public purse? Did they use government documents and guides in developing their collecting and reporting standards? Did they use government-guaranteed business development loans to get established? The list of similar questions is almost endless. The answer of course is that before even the first prediction or weather report is issued the operators already owe every citizen something. How much? Well, not a free prediction for Sunday afternoon's trip to the beach, but in the case of a major disaster a warning is due, FREE OF CHARGE. None of these arguments has anything to do with "makers" and "takers", nor anything to do with depriving people of what they have earned; just an occasional show of humanity. Lastly, information and computer programs are not comparable in this discussion. Programs are tools; to use them in an unauthorized way is the same as refusing to pay for the rental of a carpet cleaner from your local supermarket after you've used it to clean your rugs. Stealing programs is something most of us do simply because we can get away with it. For that you cannot provide a moral defense, but to claim an absolute right to withold information is no more defensible. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 5 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Jerry Hindle, 123/6 In Rememberence I don't know if any of you out there in FREEWARE land ever go thru back issues of FidoNews or not. I do and in issue # 226 there was a notice about the passing of a very special person. Although I never met him, or for that matter, ever heard of him, he affected my life in a way that has really been of immense value to me. The person of whom I speak is none other then Mr. Andrew Fluegelman. If you ,like myself, never heard of him before I suggest you stop to think about what life would be like if you had to BUY every one of the FREEWARE, SHAREWARE, etc. type of programs that you now enjoy at little or no cost to you. I suspect you would have a very limited library of software for your system. After pondering this for a few minutes, stop and think about how all of this FREEWARE stuff got started in the first place. AHA, I see the little bulbs lighting up now..... Mr Fluegelman was indeed the first person to release a major piece of software under the FREEWARE concept. To quote the writer of the obituary posted in issue 226 of FidoNews,"He is probably best known as the author of PC-TALK". His contribution to the computer world will probably outlast all of us and rightly so. He believed in the addage "The best judge of the worth of a piece of software is the USER on his own system". As I said before, I have never met him; and until the other night I never really knew of him. But after reading that notice and looking through my library, it really hit home as to the impact he had on me. In his own way he introduced me to software I would never have been able to afford otherwise. He gave me the opportunity to try new things without having to own a mint. He I suppose made it possible Tom Jennings to be gracious enough to release Fido to the public for public use. HE STARTED A TREND ! Freeware has become a MAJOR source of software for millions of computer owners with a multitude of different machines, and yet most of us (myself included) never make his concept come true for the authors out there who labor over programs for months, even years, simply to give it away on the premise that basically humans are honest enough to be fair about donating something to the author for his troubles. As I sit here pounding on my keyboard, I make a mental Fidonews Page 6 11 Aug 1986 promise to myself to PAY for all the FREEWARE and other freely distributed software that I use and whenever I find the extra cash I do indeed make every effort to send a donation of at least the WORTH of the program to the author. I value freeware as a concept and will continue to support it in every way I possibly can. AND I REMEMBER......... Thank you, Mr. Fluegelman. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 7 11 Aug 1986 John Bone, 503/17 NEW FIDO_BBS from COMPUTERTOWN UK! - LOG-on-the-TYNE Hi, My name is JOHN BONE, and I have been using BBS since 1980, here in the United Kingdom of GREAT BRITAIN, I now (FOOL!) have set up the FIRST FIDO_BBS, in the north-east coast of England. ComputerTown UK!, is alive and kicking, based to a small exent upon the CTUSA!, newsletters of yester-year! My group ComputerTown North east covers the TYNESIDE conurbanation of NEWCASTLE upon TYNE , and GATESHEAD. We have several needs.... international contacts, and help with some of your FIDO users micros.... any ST freaks out there? we would like any info on PUBLIC DOMAIN software, and hints/help etc... We also have several TANDY (TRS-80 model I/II/III IV(P) users) who would like to swop FIDO NET MAIL and puiblic domain software, hints etc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 8 11 Aug 1986 Mark Welch, 161/459 An IBM-PC Compatibility Testing Program NOTICE: A programming project is being started on the BYTE Information Exchange (BIX), to write an IBM-PC-compatibility test program. The activity is centered in the software engineering (soft.eng) conference on BIX, but input and assistance from all computer users is desired. The following are the opening messages in the conference. If you have any suggestions or comments, please send them to me at Fido 161/459, or via BIX. -- Mark Welch ========== soft.eng/compat #4, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:26:50 1986 ---------- TITLE: A Compatibility Testing Program: Overview I wrote a long essay about compatibility, but who needs it? To sum up: none of the available IBM-compatible computers run every software title. Before buying a computer, most folks would like to be forwarned of what incompatibilities that machine might have when compared to the IBM PC. The goal, then, is to write a program that tests a machine for each of the "known" incompatibilities, and warns the potential buyer. ========== soft.eng/compat #5, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:28:34 1986 ---------- TITLE: A Compatibility Testing Program: Rough design: All output of compatibility test results should be sent to the screen, to a file, and to a printer (if selected). Status should always be stored to disk before any action that could potentially crash the computer, so the program, when re- started after re-boot, will be able to figure out where it left off, note the meaning of the crash if possible, and then continue testing. A particularly incompatible machine may crash a dozen or more times during testing, but the persistent user deserves a complete report. The testing should have several levels: one that doesn't require activity by the user; one that requires keyboard activity only by the user; and one which requires the user to open the machine and play with DIP switches and reboot the machine several times. (Rebooting may be required in any level, if an impolite incompatibility is found.) Fidonews Page 9 11 Aug 1986 1) Test to see if this is an IBM PC. Look for the IBM copyright in the ROM (are there other ways? compare certain byte locations?). If it is an IBM PC ROM, say so, and then continue the tests anyway. 2) Measure the system's speed. If it's not 4.77 MHz, warn the user about programs (list, please?) that are time- dependent. Let him/her know that this problem applies to the AT and PCjr as well. Test RAM speed, CPU speed, overall speed, and if possible (how?) bus speed. 3) (a) Write characters to the screen using DOS, and then do a direct screen read. Report if you can't find the screen in the usual locations. (b) Write characters directly to the screen, and ask the user if it says what it's supposed to. (c) Do whatever it is that generates "snow" o