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bbs/long.messages #13, from billbourn, 39479 chars, Sat Sep 27 17:41:38 1986
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TITLE: Another edition of the Dirty Dozen (40K ! and some commercial aspects)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| THE DIRTY DOZEN -- An Uploaded Program Alert List |
| |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Issue #6: September 5th, 1986 |
| |
| |
| |
| Compiled by Eric Newhouse |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently, many unlawfully copied or modified programs have appeared on
various IBM PC bulletin boards across the country. THE DIRTY DOZEN is a
list of known examples.
There are four major categories of "bogusware": commercial pirate jobs,
unauthorized "hacks" of otherwise legitimate freeware programs, malicious
"TROJAN" programs which damage your system, and miscellaneous illegal
software. A more detailed explanation of each category is given in the
definitions section of this document.
SysOps: Please be careful with the files you post in your download
libraries! Be suspicious when an uploaded game or disk utility appears to
be of professional quality, yet doesn't include the author's name, address,
nd distribution policy. Such programs are probably NOT public domain!
The BBS community is already under legislative threat at the State and
Federal level. We cannot fight this trend effectively while our directories
sit stocked with "cracked" Sega games, 1-2-3 copiers and Wargames dialers!
Let's demonstrate a little social responsibility by cleaning up our download
libraries. If you as a SysOp have any of these files on your system, please
delete them and post "blocking" dummy file entries like this one:
ZAXXON.COM DELETED!! NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN!!
The idea behind THE DIRTY DOZEN is simultaneously to bring this issue to
the attention of more SysOps and users, and to act as an information clearing-
house for the latest known examples of "bogusware." I need YOUR help! Please
call in any updates of bad software that you know of; see the end of this
article for information on how to reach me with new information.
A word on TROJANS: I have been hearing more and more reports of these
"worm" programs, from all directions. While I don't doubt their existence,
let's not get hysterical. Remember, a Trojan rumor is a lot easier to START
than it is to STOP. Some people have accused "legitimate" *joke* programs,
like DRAIN (which pretends to be gurgling excess water out of your A drive) of
being "killers." If a program locks up your system, it isn't necessarily
Trojan; it might not like co-residing with Superkey, or your graphics card.
Ask around a little before you announce something as Trojan. I would
appreciate a bagged specimen of any real Trojan program that you might have
the (un)luck to find.
A word on Pirated programs: Recently many pirated programs such as AUTODEX
have been going under many different names. Although I will try to keep
all these names current in the DD, the best way to check and see if a
file is pirated is to run it yourself -- checking for (C)opyright
notices of commercial manufactures, similarities in looks and operations
of commercial programs, and of course whether the name is in this list.
Starting with version 5.0 of the Dirty Dozen, "bad" files are
separated into two sections: one for those files that are pirated, and
one for those that are hacked or trojan. This is because most of the
"bad" files these days are PIRATED, and in my view pirated files are
less important than TROJAN HORSES. Therefore, the "Trojans" and
"Hacked" programs are listed first in this document. More information
on "Trojan," "Hacked," and "Pirated" may be found at the "definitions"
part of this document.
About two days before the release of this list, a user of mine notified
that a pirate had patched HARDHAT.COM to read "cracked by Eric Newhouse."
This is ridiculous! Please disregard any programs that you may come across
in the future advertising "copy protection busted by Eric Newhouse, " or
the like. This is just one more way that pirates are trying to get me
to stop publishing this list!
Finally I want to thank all bbs SysOps and users that notified me of
updates, additions, and/or corrections to DIRTYDOZ.005. It's great to
see so much support! In this issue more than ever people called in with
updates. As I said, thanks a lot! Everyone else who reads this
list, along with myself, really appreciates your effort!
Final Note: The author takes no responsibility for the validity or
completeness of this list. Many sources contribute to
the list, and it is very possible that one of the reported
"dirty" files works perfectly and is in the Public Domain.
On the same token, it is impossible to write all existing bad
software into one list. Everyday users upload bad software
to hundreds of boards, and often times the software is not yet
in this list. What I am saying, basically, is that if you run
a trojan horse that is not listed in this list, don't call my
board up blaming me for not warning you about the trojan;
rather, please call up and leave me a message so that I can get
the destructive program in the next issue. If anyone is unsure
whether a file is trojan, and it's not listed in here, then I
recommend using a utility like BOMBSQAD.COM to prevent any
mishaps.
DEFINITIONS:
HACKED An unlawfully modified copy of an otherwise legitimate
freeware or user-supported program. It is illegal to
distribute a modified copy of someone else's work without
their permission. If the modifying party has obtained
that permission, it should be mentioned in the program's
display or documentation.
*TROJAN* BEWARE!! The purposes of these programs are to intentionally
damage the computer system that they are run on. Usually they
will aim to disable hard disks, although they can destroy other
equipment too. It is IMPERATIVE that you let me know about any
new examples of these that you find.
PIRATED This is an illegal copy of a commercial program product.
Examples: a "cracked" (de-protected) game, an accidentally
or deliberately distributed compiler, editor or utility;
sometimes a Beta test copy of a program under development,
handed out by a disgruntled employee or dishonest beta
tester. In the latter case, the program in question may
never make it to market due to the pirating! (But it's
still unlawful to distribute it.) In the case of games,
there's a tendency for the pirate to patch a clumsy
"PUBLIC DOMAIN" notice over top of the original copyright.
ZAXXON.COM is a prime example.
MISC This is miscellaneous illegal software and/or text.
The best definition, aside from that, that I can think of
is that it's NOT pirated software.
NOTE: If no file extension is supplied, that means that the file has been
circulating under many different extensions. For instance, BALKTALK has
been seen with extensions of: .EXE, .COM, .EQE, .CQM, .LBR, .LQR, and .ARC.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| HACKED & TOJAN HORSE PROGRAMS: |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name Category Notes
-------------- -------- -------------------------------------------------
ARC.COM HACKED Someone keeps running SPACEMAKER or a similar EXE
squeezer on SEA, Inc.'s ARC archive program, then
uploading the resulting COM file to BBS's without
the author's permission. Not kosher, whoever you
are. SEA will NOT support the COM version -- this
is an unauthorized modification.
ARC513.EXE *TROJAN* This hacked version of arc appears normal, so
beware! It will write over track 0 of your
[hard] disk upon usage, destroying the disk.
ARC514.COM *TROJAN* This is totally similar to arc version 5.13 in that
it will overwrite track 0 (FAT Table) of your hard
disk. Also, I have yet to see an .EXE version
of this program..
ARC600.EXE *TROJAN* This supposedly formats all hard disks on the
system that the program is run on.
BALKTALK *TROJAN* This program used to be a good PD utility,
but some one changed it to be trojan.
Now this program will write/destroy sectors
on your [hard] disk drive. Use this with caution
if you acquire it, because it's more than likely
that you got a bad copy.
CDIR.COM *TROJAN* This program is supposed to give you a color
directory of files on disk, but it in fact
will scramble your disks FAT table.
DISKSCAN.EXE *TROJAN* This was a PC-MAGAZINE program to scan a hard disk
for bad sectors, but then a joker edited it to
WRITE bad sectors. Also look for this under other
names such as SCANBAD.EXE and BADDISK.EXE...
DOSKNOWS.EXE *TROJAN* I'm still tracking this one down -- apparently
someone wrote a FAT killer and renamed it
DOSKNOWS.EXE, so it would be confused with the
real, harmless DOSKNOWS system-status utility.
All I know for sure is that the REAL DOSKNOWS.EXE
is 5376 bytes long. If you see something called
DOSKNOWS that isn't close to that size, sound the
alarm. More info on this one is welcomed -- a
bagged specimen especially.
EGABTR *TROJAN* BEWARE! Description says something like
"improve your EGA display," but when run it
deletes everything in sight and prints "Arf! Arf!
Got you!"
FILER.EXE *TROJAN* One SysOp complained a while ago that this program
wiped out his 20 Megabyte HD. I'm not so
sure that he was correct and/or telling the
truth any more. I have personally tested an
excellent file manager also named FILER.EXE, and
it worked perfectly. Also, many other SysOp's
have written to tell me that they have like me
used a FILER.EXE with no problems. If somebody
does not confirm that this program is trojan,
I will take it out of the next issue..
FUTURE.BAS *TROJAN* This "program" starts out with a very nice color
picture (of what I don't know) and then proceeds
to tell you that you should be using your computer
for better things than games and graphics.
After making that point it trashes your A: drive,
B:, C:, D:, and so on until it has erased all
drives. It does not go after the FAT alone,
but it also erases all of your data. As far as I
know, however, it erases only one sub-directory
tree level deep, thus hard disk users should only
be seriously affected if they are in the "root"
directory. I'm not sure about this on either,
though.
LIST60 HACKED Vuern Buerg's LIST 5.1, patched to read 6.0.
LIST799 HACKED Vuern Buerg's LIST 5.1, patched to read 7.99.
MAP *TROJAN* This is another trojan written by the infamous
TSRMAP "Dorn W. Stickle." The program does what it's
supposed to do: give a map outlining the location
(in RAM) of all TSR programs, but it also
erases the boot sector of drive "C:".
PACKDIR *TROJAN* This utility is supposed to "pack" (sort and
optimize) the files on a [hard] disk, but
apparently it scrambles FAT tables.
QMDM110.ARC HACKED ONLY versions 1.10 and 1.10A! They are
QMDM110A.ARC copies of 1.09, hacked to read 1.10. There
have been rumors of a worm in 1.10, but I
have seen no evidence of it. Other
versions are OK.
QUIKRBBS.COM *TROJAN* This Trojan horse advertises that it will
load RBBS-PC's message file into memory
2 times faster than normal. What it really
does is copy RBBS-PC.DEF into an ASCII file
named HISCORES.DAT...
SECRET.BAS *TROJAN* BEWARE!! This may be posted with a note saying
it doesn't seem to work, and would someone please
try it; when you do, it formats your disks.
STAR.EXE *TROJAN* Beware RBBS-PC SysOps! This file puts some
stars on the screen while copying RBBS-PC.DEF
to another name that can be downloaded later!
STRIPES.EXE *TROJAN* Similar to STAR.EXE, this one draws an American
flag (nice touch), while it's busy copying
your RBBS-PC.DEF to another file (STRIPES.BQS) so
Bozo can log in later, download STRIPES.BQS, and
steal all your passwords. Nice, huh!
VDIR.COM *TROJAN* This is a disk killer that Jerry Pournelle wrote
about in BYTE Magazine. I have never seen it,
although a responsible friend of mine has.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PIRATED PROGRAMS: |
| |
| |
| TYPES: |
| Game -- some sort of game, usually of "Arcade" Quality |
| Util -- a disk, screen, or general utility |
| Misc -- miscellaneous, printer controllers, sound, etc. |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program Name Type Description
------------ ---- -----------
1DIR.COM PIRATED Util -- This is "The ONE Dir," a commercial shell
sold with a Hard Disk subsystem.
21C.EXE PIRATED Game -- From the IBM Game Library -- blackjack
ACUPAINT PIRATED Misc -- PC Paint -- ARC-ed file is 148,221 bytes.
ALLEYCAT.COM PIRATED Util -- The IBM game "Alley Cat"
ALTEREGO.ARC PIRATED Game -- Alter Ego game from Activision
this archive file is huge -- about 450KB
or so..
ARTOFWAR PIRATED Game -- Ancient Art of War game.
AUTODEX PIRATED Util -- AUTODEX, a commercial file manager
AXX.EXE PIRATED Util -- also AUTODEX
B1-BOMB PIRATED Game -- Avalon Hill's B1 Bomber
BATTLE PIRATED Game -- Battle Zone Game
BBCHESS PIRATED Game -- Blues Box Chess
BC-QUEST PIRATED Game -- Bc's Quest for Tires
BIGMAC.ARC PIRATED Util -- Also Superkey
BRUCELEE PIRATED Game -- Bruce Lee game
BUCK PIRATED Game -- Buck Rogers on Planet Zoom
BURGER PIRATED Game -- Burgertime
BUSHIDO PIRATED Game -- Karate Game
BUZZBAIT PIRATED Game -- Buzzard Bait
CENTIPED PIRATED Game -- Be careful with this one-there are at least
two legitimate PD copies of Centipede in
circulation. There pirated one is
supposably PUBLIC DOMAIN BY ATARI.
Yeah, Right.
COSMIC PIRATED Game -- Cosmic Crusaders
COPYRITE PIRATED Util -- Really Quaid Software's COPYWRITE
COPYWRIT PIRATED Util -- Quaid Software's COPYWRITE again
COSMIC PIRATED Game -- Cosmic Crusaders game
CROSFIRE.COM PIRATED Game -- Cross fire game..
CRUSH-CC.ARC PIRATED Game -- Crush, Crumble & Chomp Game
DEB88.EXE PIRATED Misc -- DeSmet "C" debugger
DECATH PIRATED Game -- Microsoft Decathalon
DEFENDER PIRATED Game -- Defender
DIGGER.COM PIRATED Game -- Dig Dug
DIGDUG.COM PIRATED Game -- Dig Dug
DISKEX PIRATED Util -- Disk Explorer Utility
DOSHELP.EXE PIRATED Util -- This is really Central Point Software's
PC-tools. One special note: There is
usually a poorly written documentation
accompanying this file. In the
documentation ERIC HSU asks for a monetary
contribution to his bbs. Well, It seems
that this was a poor attempt to damage
ERIC HSU's reputation-Eric is a legitimate
SysOp in the Houston area.
DOSMENU PIRATED Util -- INTECHS DOSMENU - The Menu screen says "PC
DOS MENU SYSTEM 5.0" Archive size is
208,240 - The copyright notice is on the
bottom of the screen.
DOSSHELL PIRATED Util -- AUTODEX again
DRL PIRATED Game -- Avalon Hill's "Dnieper River Line."
DIPLOMCY PIRATED Game -- Avalon Hill's "Computer Diplomacy" - This
is a WW2 simulation of the eastern front
EXPLORER.COM PIRATED Util -- Quaid Software's Disk Explorer
F15 PIRATED Game -- F-15 Strike Eagle
FILEEASE PIRATED Util -- Dos Utility
FILEMGR PIRATED Util -- Really FILE MANAGER by Lotus Devel. Corp.
FILEMAN PIRATED Util -- Also FILE MANAGER. The file is 10 KBytes
FSDEBUG PIRATED Util -- IBM's Full Screen Debug program..
GOLF21.ARC PIRATED Game -- Golf's Best version 2.1
GREMLINS.COM PIRATED Game -- Gremlins game
HARDHAT.COM PIRATED Game -- Hard Hat Mack
HOOP.COM PIRATED Game -- One-on-1
IBM21 PIRATED Game -- 21c
IPLTIME.COM PIRATED Util -- IBM Internal Use Clock utility
JBIRD PIRATED Game -- Jbirds -- Q-bert Game
JOUST PIRATED Game -- Joust. Be careful, there is a 6K version
KEYWORKS.ARC PIRATED Util -- Keyworks macro program, usu. version 2.0
KONG PIRATED Game -- Donkey Kong
MACE+ PIRATED Util -- Paul Mace's MACE+ utilities
MACROS PIRATED Util -- Again Superkey, or even Prokey
MEDMAG.COM PIRATED Util -- Quaid Software's Media Magician
MISSLEC PIRATED Game -- Missle command
MONTYS.COM PIRATED Game -- Montezuma's Revenge
MOONBUGS PIRATED Game -- Moon Bugs
MS PIRATED Util -- IBM internal utility.
MTS PIRATED Util -- IBM Multi-tasker that's like DoubleDos
MUSICCON PIRATED Misc -- Music Construction Set
NFL.ARC PIRATED Game -- Xor's NFL challenge.
NICE PIRATED Misc -- A printer Controller
NORTON.COM PIRATED Util -- Peter Norton's Utilities!
NOVATRON PIRATED Util -- Tron light cycles.
ONE-ON-1 PIRATED Game -- One-on-1 basketball game.
PATHMIND PIRATED Util -- Dos Shell
PCBOSS PIRATED Util -- Another Dos shell
PC-POOL PIRATED Game -- Really PC-POOL, commercial game
POOL.ARC PIRATED Game -- Same
PC-TOOLS PIRATED Util -- Central Point Software's PC-tools
PINCONST PIRATED Game -- Pinball Construction Set
POPALARM.COM PIRATED Util -- Part of POP DOS
POPDOS.ARC PIRATED Util -- Pop up (resident) dos utilities.
PROKEY PIRATED Util -- Prokey macros program
PSHIFT PIRATED Util -- really MEMORY SHIFT
PSRD.ARC PIRATED Util -- IBM utility (redirects PrtSc)
QDOS PIRATED Util -- Quickdos
QIX PIRATED Game -- The game.
RASTER-B PIRATED Game -- Raster Blaster
ROBOTRON PIRATED Game -- Robotron, hacked to read PUBLIC DOMAIN BY
ATARI. Don't pirates have any imagination?
ROGUE.EXE PIRATED Game -- Game very similar to the PD game HACK.EXE
ROMANTIC PIRATED Game -- Romantic Encounters at the Dome.
RE.ARC PIRATED Game -- Same
SEADRAG.ARC PIRATED Game -- Sea Dragon
SEE PIRATED Misc -- DeSmet editor
SFX PIRATED Util -- really AUTODEX (again!)
SM.COM PIRATED Util -- Realia's SPACEMAKER utility
SMAP PIRATED Util -- IBM Internal utility, with the copyright
notice blanked out and real author's name
() replaced by "Dorn W. Stickle".
SPYHUNT PIRATED Game -- Spy Hunter Game.
STARGATE.EXE PIRATED Game -- Hacked to say "PUBLIC DOMAIN BY ATARI,"
but don't you believe it! Be careful not
to confuse this 57 KB .EXE file with the
public domain STARGATE MERCHANT game,
which is a little 12 KB BASIC program
by G. E. Wolfworth.
STRIPKR PIRATED Game -- Strip Poker by Artworx
SUPERCAD PIRATED Misc -- Easy CAD, a drawing program -- LQR file
size is 242,660 bytes
SUPERKEY PIRATED Misc -- Superkey macro program
THEQUEST.BAS/EXE PIRATED Game -- The Quest
TIRES.EXE PIRATED Game -- Again, really bc's quest for tires
TEMPOFAP PIRATED Game -- Temple of Apshai
ULTIII PIRATED Game -- Ultima 3
UTILITY PIRATEd Util -- Norton's Utilities Arced and with the file
names changed. When run, however, the
programs display the copyright notice of
Peter Norton. Many other pirated utils
could also go under the name UTILITY.
VS PIRATED Util -- Also INTECHS DOSMENU
WCKARATE PIRATED Game -- World Championship karate by epyx
XDIR PIRATED Util -- Pre-release version of DOS FILE TRACKER
XTREE PIRATED Util -- IBM's tree utility, an IBM "Personally
Developed" program.
ZAXXON PIRATED Game -- Hacked (sound familiar?) to say "PUBLIC
DOMAIN BY SEGA." Sorry, Charlie!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| MISCELLANEOUS ILLEGAL FILES: |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYWRIT MISC Patch -- Although the real COPYWRITE is going around
Bulletin Boards like fire, there is another
illegal file under the same name.
The former takes around 40 KB ARC-ed,
whereas this takes about 2 KB.
What I'm referring to is an archive of
1-3 files that explains how to remove
the serial numbers from copywrite. Now
it's alright to "unprotect" a program
for backup purposes, but removing serial
numbers can only lead to piracy.
LOCKPICK MISC Text -- This is a text file, usually with a
.TXT extension, that casually explains
how to pick locks. I'm not sure
whether this is illegal, but it's
definitely in poor taste.
XTALK MISC Patch -- Like Copywrite, there is a patch circulating
BBS's to remove the serial numbers from
Crosstalk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Many thanks to generous, continuous update contributions from: |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| 1. THE SOURCE information service. |
| 2. You? |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the end of the "bad files list." The rest of this document
contains instructions on what to do if YOU run a trojan horse, an update
history, a glossary, and information on how and where to contact me with
updates.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| If you run a trojan horse.. |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing to do after running what you think to be a trojan horse is
diagnose the damage. Was your [hard] drive formatted? Did the trojan scramble
your FAT table? Did every file get erased? Did your boot sector on the [hard]
drive get erased/formatted? Odds are that the trojan incurred one of these
.More..
four disasters.. After the initial diagnosis, you are ready to remedy the
problem. Bear in mind that there is no better remedy for a drive that has
run a trojan horse than a recent backup..
1) If the trojan FORMATTED your hard disk:
There is only one way out of this mess, and that is to use the
MACE+ utilities by Paul Mace. MACE+ has two devices in it to
recover formatted disks, and believe me, they work! More about
MACE+ later.
2) If your FAT got scrambled:
there is nothing to do. However, there Is a program called
FATBACK.COM (available on my board) that will back up your FAT
table in under a minute to floppy. Using FATBACK, it is easy
and non time consuming to back up your FAT regularly.
3) If file(s) got erased, and the FAT table is undamaged:
There are many packages to "undelete" deleted files. Norton
Utilites, PC-tools, MACE+, and UNDEL.COM will all do the job.
I recommend the first three, but they are more expensive than
the Public Domain program UNDEL.COM. When you are undeleting,
be sure to undelete files in the order of last time written to
disk. PC-tools for one automatically lists "undeletable" files
in the correct order, but the other three may not.
4) If the boot sector on your [hard] disk gets erased/formatted:
There are four things to do if this happens, and the worst that
can happen is that you will go without a [hard] disk for a while.
To be on the safest side, back up everything before even proceeding
to step "A," although I can not see why it would be necessary.
A) Try doing a "SYS C:" (or "SYS A:") from your original DOS disk,
and copy COMMAND.COM back onto the [hard] drive after that.
Try booting and if that doesn't work try step B.
B) If you have the MACE+ utilities go to the "other utilities"
section and "restore boot sector." This should do the job
if you have been using MACE+ correctly.
C) If you are still stuck, BACK EVERYTHING UP and proceed to do a
low level format. Instructions on how to perform a low-level
format should come with your [hard] disk controller card.
Be sure to map out bad sectors using either SCAV.COM by Chris
Dunford or by manually entering the locations of bad sectors
into the low level format program. After the low level format,
if your have a hard disk, run FDISK.COM (it comes with DOS)
and create a DOS partition. Refer to your DOS manual for help
in using FDISK. Then put your original DOS diskette in drive A:
and do a FORMAT <drive letter>:/S/V. Drive letter can stand for
"C" or "B" depending on whether you are reformatting a hard disk
or not. Finally you are ready to attempt a reboot.
D) If you are still stuck, either send your drive away to be fixed
by professionals, or live with a non-bootable [hard] drive..
By now you may be saying to yourself:
"how can I get a hold of a 'MACE+' utilities package so that I can guard
against trojans? Why, MACE+ can recover a formatted drive, undelete files,
and restore boot sectors! I want to get it!"
OK, there are two ways to get ahold of these marvelous utilities. One is to
call up the Paul Mace Software Company (tm) and order them at a retail of
$ 79.95. The other is place an order for them at the WEST LOS ANGELES
PC-STORE for $ 49.95. The PC-STORE supports next day UPS shipping, so you can
be assured of getting the utilities fast. The BBS phone # for the PC-STORE is
at the end of this document.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Update History: |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.0 Plans were drawn up for a "bad file" list and a dozen
bad files were entered in the list.
Version 2.0 Saw the addition of a short introduction and about 10
more files.
Version 3.0 Here Tom Neff and I started collaborating on the Dirty
Dozen. About 20 files were added, and the introduction
was completely re-written.
Version 4.0 By this time I totally took over responsibility
of the DD, as Tom Neff lost interest. Another 30 or
so files were added to the list, making the DD 65+
files strong. A few more additions to the introduction.
Version 5.0 By the time version 5.0 was released, the Dirty Dozen
was being greeted favorably and with enthusiasm
around the country. Updates started coming in with
regularity; the list prospered (if one can say that
about a list!). A few more paragraphs were added to
the introduction, and 40 new files were bringing the
file total up to 103!
Version 6.0 The Dirty Dozen has gotten to be such a big project that
I am now writing it in stages. Although I am going to
make absolutely no effort to spread these "intermediate
versions," they will always be downloadable from my board.
This way if anyone so desires, they may keep an extremely
current issue of the DD, although the changes will only be
minor. You might think of stage "a" of issue #6 as version
6.1, stage "b" as version 6.2, stage "c" as version 6.3.
New in version 6.0 is the following:
A) Many minor revisions,
B) 17 more files, bringing the total to 120!
C) Two new paragraphs in the introduction,
D) Instructions on how to recover from a trojan horse,
E) A comprehensive glossary,
F) This update history,
G) An acknowledgments section set up for major contrib-
utors of information regarding new bogusware,
H) A new bogusware catagory of "miscellaneous
illegal software."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Glossary: |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| This glossary is aimed at the beginning to intermediate user, |
| so if you are experienced, reading the whole thing will only bore you.. |
| |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
?Q? -- (? standing for any character). File extension for SQueezed
files. Squeezed files are unusable until unsqueezed by a
utility such as NUSQ.COM or USQ.COM. The advantage of a
SQueezed file is that it is smaller than a regular UnSQueezed
file, thus saving disk space and download time. ARChives are
more efficient than Squeezed files; that's why there are so
many more ARChives on BBS's these days. Example of the
extensions of SQueezed files: .EQE, .CQM, .LQR, .TQT,
.DQC, etc.
ABBR -- abbreviation for the word: "abbreviation"
ARC -- File extension for an ARChive file -- many files combined
together to save space and download time that require ARC.EXE,
PKXARC.COM, ARCE.COM, or ARCLS.EXE to separate the
files in to "runnable" and "readable" (in the case of
text) form.
BAS -- abbr "BASIC," as in the programming language
BBS -- abbr "Bulletin Board System"
BBS's -- abbr "Bulletin Board Systems"
BOARD -- Also "Bulletin Board System"
BOGUSWARE -- software that is damaging to one or more parties
BOOT or -- to "boot" up a computer is to restart it from scratch, erasing
REBOOT all TSR programs. Rebooting is performed by either powering
off and then on, or pressing ctrl-alt-del at the same time.
BYTES -- Bytes are used to measure the length of a file, with one
byte equaling one character in a file.
COM -- file extension for a file that is executable from DOS level
DD -- abbr "dirty dozen"
DOC -- abbr "documentation"
EXE -- file extension for a file that is executable from DOS level
HACKED -- see "definitions" section
IBM -- International Business Machines
IBM OR COMP -- IBM computer or a 99% or greater IBM Compatible computer
KB -- Abbreviation for "KiloBytes," one Kb equals 1024 bytes
LBR -- Extension on Library files. Library files are really
many combined files like ARChives, but they require
different utilities to extract the individual files.
Some examples of such utilities are LUU.EXE, LUE.EXE,
LAR.EXE, AND ZIP.EXE. See "ARC"
MB -- abbr "Megabytes," or "millions of bytes."
MISC -- abbr "miscellaneous"
OPTIMIZE -- to make all files on a disk "contiguous," or physically linked
together on a [hard] drive.
PATCH -- a file that is patched (combined) into another file
to change the original file in some way
PD -- abbr "Public Domain"
PIRATED -- see "definitions" section in this issue.
RAM -- abbr "Random Access Memory." (memory used by software)
RBBS -- abbr RBBS-PC, a type of BBS. [Remote Bulletin Board System]
ROM -- abbr "Read Only Memory." (memory used by hardware to boot)
SYSOP -- SYStem OPerator of a BBS