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┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ │
│ C A R R I E R D E T E C T │
│ │
│ The PC Communications Journal For Every Modem User! │
│ │
│ Issue #6, May 1992 │
│ │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Table of Contents:
Welcome ............................................ 2
Product Evaluations ................................ 3
Offline Mail Reader Round-Up (Part 1) .......... 3
Bluewave v2.00 ................................. 7
OLX v2.2 ....................................... 11
Speed Read v1.00 ............................... 13
Sneak Preview ...................................... 17
Wildcat! BBS v3.5................................. 18
Writer's Roundup ................................... 20
Reflections 3 .................................. 21
Reflections 4 .................................. 23
ByteLine ........................................... 25
Feedback ........................................... 31
Distribution Sites ................................. 31
Product Information .............................. 32
Advertisements ..................................... 33
Carrier Detect is published quarterly by Michael W.
Crosson. Contents may not be reproduced without written
permission from the publisher. All brand and product
names mentioned in this publication are trademarks and
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
(c) 1992 Michael W. Crosson. All rights reserved.
W E L C O M E
Welcome to the Spring 1992 edition of Carrier Detect!
Since the last issue circumstances in my life have changed
a great deal and the journal got put on the back burner
for awhile. I regret that this issue was so late and
apologize for the difficulty that many of you have had in
trying to contact me.
The bad news is that my financial situation took a
turn for the worse early this year and I was forced to
disconnect my second (BBS) telephone line. As a result,
the main distribution site of Carrier Detect will be The
Hour Glass BBS in Tucson until I can set up my own BBS
again. If you wish to contact me electronically, this is
the place to do so as well. The Hour Glass BBS's phone
number is (602) 326-2999 and its Fidonet address is
1:300/12.
In the fall I will be an entering McGeorge School of
Law in Sacramento assuming nothing traumatic happens to me
between now and August. I plan on moving to Sacramento
late June and hope to set up a BBS system at that time. I
hope to continue the journal but the release schedule may
become more erratic. Law school is going to take a great
deal of my time and Carrier Detect will be worked on
strictly on 'time available basis.' The number of reader
submissions could make a BIG difference in the future
release schedule for the next year or so. If you ever
wanted to write an article or review, this would be the
time to do it! In addition, as a student relying very
heavily on financial aid, the operation of a BBS would be
GREATLY assisted by a donation or CDR-Door registration.
Thanks for all your support and continued interest in
Carrier Detect. Look for a new issue sometime in July!
Hopefully by that time my BBS will be online again - watch
for it!
Sincerely,
Michael Crosson
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 2
P R O D U C T E V A L U A T I O N S
Each month Carrier Detect contains several product
evaluations. Most of these will be software reviews but
from time to time hardware will be discussed as well. The
opinions expressed in Carrier Detect are solely my own or
the respective author of the article. Carrier Detect
strives to be as objective as possible when evaluating
software. Judgments to suitability are made with the
typical modem enthusiast in mind and are not geared toward
the complete novice nor the power user. Exceptions to
this are noted as such in the article.
* OFFLINE MAIL READER ROUNDUP (Part 1)
OR Sociological Implications of Offline Messaging in
Community Bulletin Boards!
Article by Michael Crosson
Offline messaging has been the hottest trend in the
BBS world during the last couple of years. In addition,
few trends will have as big an impact, because offline
messaging represents a fundamental change in the way
people use a BBS and what they expect from it. To
understand why, let's go back a bit to what some old
timers refer to as 'The Golden Days' of BBSes.
Back in the early days of BBSing, messages were the
main focus of activity. Slow modems and a low number of
shareware releases were the main factors behind this fact.
At this time, echomail and groupmail were also in their
infancy. The result? A strong sense of community often
emerged on local bulletin boards. Through the constant
exchange of messages, the callers came to know each other
and in many cases GTs or Get Togethers were frequently
held. This lead to friendships beyond those formed
strictly in the silicon chips.
As time passed, the personality of bulletin boards
began to change. Messages were not nearly as important as
they once were to the majority of users. A steady stream
of shareware began to trickle down the pike and faster
modems made it practical to download it. Many callers
were only interested in using the local BBS as a file
exchange depot and never even explored the message areas.
The problem was also one of time. Even if the caller did
wish to read or write message, his daily time allotment
might be used up after downloading (and maybe even
uploading) all those files.
I choose to call this problem the 'Lurker Syndrome'.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 3
Although the typical BBS may receive 20 or 30 calls a day,
few callers actually do anything online other than
download files. They may even explore the message areas,
doors, or other features for a few moments but rarely if
ever participate themselves in the activities. These
types of callers, and I believe them to be in the
majority, are best described as 'Lurkers.' The challenge
facing BBS systems is how to shake the disease.
Some BBS authors or utility programmers noticed this
disturbing trend and Post/Call ratio enforcement was born.
The Post/Call ratio, on systems that use it, typically
prohibits file downloading unless the caller has posted a
certain number of messages each call. This solution
worked better in theory than in practice however. Many
callers who were not really interested in messages would
simply post a few messages consisting of a line or two of
worthless dribble.
The local spirit of comradeship was further eroded
with the advent of echo and to a lesser extent groupmail.
Echomail allowed local bulletin boards to communicate with
other bulletin boards all over the country, (and in some
cases the world). Fidonet is the most successful amateur
network at this time, and it now contains over 10,000
nodes in nearly every part of the globe. No doubt
echomail is a technological success, and it's usefulness
is self evident in many situations. However, on another
level, I think that echomail has been entirely
unsuccessful and has unintentionally reduced message base
participation on most boards.
The reasons for this are numerous but many of the
biggest problems with echomail are related to the sheer
volume of the messages. While this may seem a
contradiction at first glance with my statements above,
with further explanation you will see it is not. I don't
mean to imply that nobody at all is posting messages. On
the contrary, tens of thousands of messages are processed
each day by the various national networks that are
currently in place. However, if you follow any net
closely for an extended period you will often find that it
is the same handful of folks posting over and over again.
On any BBS system there is always a small minority that is
inclined to post and when hundreds or thousands of these
bulletin boards are linked (a la Fidonet) even these
messages - produced by a very small minority of callers
becomes unruly.
As an example, my BBS was a member of Fidonet and I
carried about 30 national echoes on a wide variety of
interests. The traffic on many of these echoes exceeded
75 messages a day and few were less than 40. If we assume
that the average caller calls his (one) favorite BBS three
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 4
times a week and tries to keep up with 5 echoes that
interest him, he must read between 1200 and 2625 messages
a week. To further drive the point home, if the calls
spends just 30 seconds on each message, it will take him
between 10 and 20 hours to wade through all this material!
This leaves many users feeling overwhelmed and many seem
to lose interest in echomail altogether. Those that do
stick with it either narrow down the number of echoes they
follow to just one or two or end up simply skimming over
the vast majority of messages.
There are other problems that contribute to the
'Lurker Syndrome' related to the unmanageable amount of
messages. Large nets mean that many people can
potentially participate in the conversations - or threads
in BBS lingo. Some of these people will inevitable cause
problems. For starters they may start or reply to
off-topic discussions, reply to an old message that has
already been answered 20 times or post a rude (flame)
message. In Fido and most other sizable nets these types
of concerns have become a real problem. Echo policeman
called moderators are an ever increasing presence on the
larger nets. The results in a high percentage of the
echo's message consisting of inappropriate messages (as
described above) and the moderator then warning the author
of the post to cease and desist, hardly enthralling
reading.
Finally, (after this long winded introduction) we can
return to the subject of offline readers. I feel offline
messaging will play a fundamental role in the rejuvenation
of BBS systems. It changes the way callers relate to BBS
software in several important ways.
First and foremost, (as the name suggests), it allows
callers to peruse and reply to messages offline. This is
important because the user now has an unprecedented degree
of flexibility. He can choose a reader of his liking and
configure it with the editor of his choice. There is a
wide range of readers and editors available, each offering
a unique set of features. The user can choose one that is
relatively simple to use or a virtual powerhouse suitable
to use by rocket scientists only. The important thing is
that the choice is now theirs.
Additionally, the learning curve is reduced since
nearly any editor can be used with most offline readers.
Chances are the user already has a favorite editor, be it
Norton Editor, Qedit, or VDE. Even full fledged word
processing programs such as WordPerfect or Wordstar may be
used! A whole new toolbox is suddenly at your disposal.
Text can be imported, specially formatted, spell checked
and saved for future reference.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 5
Time, or lack thereof, to comfortably read messages no
longer is a problem when offline readers are used. It
takes only a couple minutes to create all but the largest
mail packet and download it to your machine. At this
point, you can spend as much time as you need browsing
through messages at your own convenience. Sometimes, and
this is especially true when dealing with conversations of
a technical nature, a proper reply requires research or
preparation. Offline messaging makes this feasible. If
the call is long distance, an offline reader saves
connection charges by allowing you to disconnect from the
BBS as soon as you get your mail packet. Of course, the
use of offline readers also allows you more time for other
BBS activities such as file transfers, door games etc.
Precisely the things that often took precedence before at
the expense of messaging.
Ironically, the actual design of the BBS's message
facilities will become less and less important as offline
messaging becomes the norm. In the past, cryptic BBS
designs made reading messages a chore at best and a
disoriented feeling that one was lost in a maze at worst.
BBS editors often left a lot to be desired as well.
Routine tasks such as editing a previously entered line
proved to became a frustrating ordeal. Recent
improvements in BBS designs and the advent of newer
conveniences such as full screen editors help to improve
the situation but still fall short of an ideal means to
express one's thoughts.
In contrast, the use of most offline readers is an
amazingly simple, yet effective way to write. Message
threads that previously were obscured by strange BBS
conventions become clear and jumping back and forth
between messages is easy. Using an offline reader allows
BBS callers to entirely avoid the internal message system
of the BBS software. BBS developers should keep this in
mind when deciding where to spend programming resources.
While a full featured and easy to use message system is
still vital to any BBS software (since it isn't always
desirable to use an offline message system), it's
importance will diminish in the years to come.
So what does it all mean? How will the popularity of
offline readers affect the BBS community?
- Participation in message areas will rise dramatically.
Offline mail systems make reading and entering messages
easier and more convenient than ever before.
- Echomail will continue to grow and prosper. Offline
mail systems make it easier to manage the large number of
messages that are processed by the networks. Since
messaging will become more popular, additional networks
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 6
will spring up. These new nets will be oriented toward
special interests rather than the one size fits all
approach of the past.
- Expect to see offline mail readers become an
integrated part of communication software. Mustang
Software now includes the QWK reader OLX with Qmodem and
although it isn't internal to Qmodem, it is a sign of
things to come.
- A greater sense of community will emerge from the
increased number of messages. It is natural effect of
writing more and in the process revealing more about
yourself. The anonymous 'Lurkers' of today will be
prevalent only on BBSes with massive numbers of files
online where transfers are main emphasis.
I see offline messaging as the single most positive trend
in BBSing in years. For those that take advantage of it,
it will open up a new realm of possibilities. The
potential for both education and entertainment is
tremendous and it awaits anyone willing to tap into it.
* The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, Version 2.00
Reviewed by Lyn Borchert
Pros: Very fast
Clean, easy to read message screens
Ability to "hook" your spell checker in
Powerful file requesting
Total offline configuration
Cons: Needs more intelligence reading messages
Very annoying 30 second + unregistered delay
Cannot sort message bases various ways
No bulletins, just a sysop created text file
Setting up the Blue Wave Reader was a piece of cake.
In a matter of minutes I was logged onto my favorite BBS
and downloaded my first Blue Wave mail packet anxious to
start reading and replying. The online interface was
friendly enough and so there were no problems encountered.
No lengthy configuration ritual or configuration uploads
and downloads to be performed. Just go in, select your
message areas and download them. There were many other
more advanced capabilities, but that's for an article on
the Blue Wave Mail Door program...
Having configured the Blue Wave Reader with the
appropriate file paths, editor, and the like, I was ready.
I fired up the program and much to my disappointment was
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 7
stuck for 30 seconds or more looking at the "beg" screen.
Pretty as it was, I was most discouraged by the fact that
I could not abort it. Finally, after my seemingly
lifetime wait, the main menu appeared. Five selections
and all pretty straight forward. "Open the Mail Packet"
was the most likely choice, so I made it. The cogs
whirled and screens flashed and then a new menu appeared.
Again with about 6 selections and all were easy enough to
understand. I Selected "Read the Mail" and up pops the
list of available areas and the number of messages in
them. The first area is highlighted, but it had no
messages in it. It would seem to me that the "mail read"
portion of this program could have at least started the
highlight out on the first area that actually had some
mail to read. Oh well.
After selecting the appropriate area, I hit enter and
boom, there is the "Title Scan" screen. This is a one
line listing of all the messages in that area with the
first one highlighted. It also shows any message that are
addressed to me or sent by me. This is similar to a
browse mode on many BBS systems. I think I would have
preferred to be put straight into the messages themselves
with the option of switching to this browse window. Most
of the time when reading mail, I think the user is going
to want to go straight to it, rather than browse around.
This is just personal preference here so I don't count
against the program for it. Plus, you can turn it off in
the configuration.
I must say, I do like the look of the message
display. The message header was very easy to read. The
default colors were pleasing and everything that I needed
or wanted to know about this message was readily available
for my tired old eyes. Help was just an F1 key press
away, message threads were clearly listed, as was the
message number and total number of messages. I would have
liked a "total remaining" count, but it was easy enough to
get an idea of the remaining number from the "25 of 110"
display. Can you tell how lazy I am?
In this reader, the arrow keys are the primary mode of
transportation. Left and right arrows take you backward
and forward one message at a time. This was most
acceptable and even enjoyable. The CTRL left and right
arrow keys would move you through a thread. I Didn't find
a key that takes me back to the original message that I
started with though. So, here again, I have to use my
limited brain power to remember the message that I was at
before I started reading the thread.
So far so good. I finally got to the last message in
this first area. The program tells me so when I press the
right arrow for the next message by making a pleasant
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 8
noise. Upon pressing the right arrow key one more time
I'm presented with the list of available areas again with
the area I just finished highlighted. I remember thinking
that here, it would have been nice if the next area with
unread messages would have been highlighted for me so that
I could just hit the enter key and be reading again. This
awkward highlight design really detracts from the overall
navigation of the reader.
Another feature that seemed to be missing was a
special area that contain all messages from all areas that
were address to me. This is a feature found on most QWK
style readers and I find it to be a great convenience.
It's a real timesaver to have all personal messages
bundled in that one "Personal" area. Maybe this will
appear in a future version.
Replying to messages was easy enough. The Blue Wave
Reader uses an external editor of your choice. It comes
bundled with TED, a public domain text editor, but I
configured it to use QEDIT, which is my text editor of
choice. When replying to a message, Blue Wave asked me if
I want to quote the original message. If I select Yes, it
then swaps out to my editor with the quoted text already
there for me to play with. Just as you would expect.
Blue Wave does give you the power to create your own quote
header. You know, that line that says something to the
effect of; "-=> Quoting Lyn Borchert to Michael Crosson
<=-". After creating my reply and saving it from my text
editor, I'm whisked back into Blue Wave and asked if I
would like to save the new message, abort it, or go back
to edit it again. Selecting save brings up the Signature
pick list where I can select a signature or have Blue Wave
randomly select one for me.
After reading my mail, I decided that I didn't want to
get all these echoes from this board in the future. This
seemed like the perfect time to change my personal setup
using the offline configuration capabilities of the Blue
Wave Reader. It operates just like the online
configuration and making it easy to delete some of the
areas that I had previously selected. Almost everything
is menu driven and able to be changed. However, there is
a thorn in this powerful feature. The shareware version
only allows you to do 5 offline configurations. After the
fifth one, the feature is totally disabled until you
register the product!
One of the nice features of the Blue Wave Reader is
the ability to use password protection. The configuration
asks if you would like to use to protect your access to
either The Blue Wave Mail Door, The Blue Wave Offline Mail
Reader, or both. The second option asks which type of
password security you would like. You can select between
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 9
"None", which disables the password feature, "Door Only",
"Reader Only", or "Both Reader and Door". You can Select
the option you would like using the cursor keys, and press
ENTER. Simple as that.
You can also have Blue Wave select messages for
packing based on Keywords or Filters. It's great if you
are looking through a large message base for all
occurrences of one or two things. It might be
particularly well suited for use in large Fido echoes like
HUMOR, PASCAL, or TREK. This is a powerful feature of the
product, but it seems to me to be a bit specialized for
everyday BBS use. For the most part, I don't believe many
users will take advantage of this feature, so it's
usefulness is questionable. For those that do need
something like this, it's great to know it is there. The
filter feature is not found on many other mail systems.
Blue Wave incorporates a powerful File Request system
to save online time and money. File request sessions are
controlled by the Sysop of each individual BBS.
Therefore, the BBS that you call may not support the file
request procedure. File requesting is also limited in
unregistered versions of The Blue Wave Reader. You will
be given 5 opportunities to try the system's file request
sessions if you are an unregistered user. After you have
exceeded this limit, you must either discontinue file
requesting, or register your copy. Registered users may
file request any number of times, provided they do not
exceed the Sysop's limit of files or the sysop defined
upload/download ratio.
A couple of other features deserve mentioning. The
Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define up to 3 Bundling
Command Macros. These macros allow you to enter a
bundling command that you frequently use with just 2 key
presses while online. This option can also prove to be a
time and money saver. Also, Blue Wave does have the
ability to use a mouse. I did not use my mouse during the
whole evaluation process. It just never dawned on me. I
personally prefer keeping my hands at the ready on the
keyboard.
In closing, I must say that all things considered, the
Blue Wave Mail Reader is a high quality product. I have
no doubt that it will continue to grow and become more
popular with sysops and users alike. Actually, the only
thing holding it back is there are not enough sysops
setting up the door. QWK mail readers are a dime a dozen,
but the day may be coming when all the power users will be
using Blue Wave. After all, Speed is important and Blue
Wave blows QWK away in that department.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 10
* Offline Xpress, Version 2.2
Reviewed by Michael Crosson
Pros: Easy to Use - very intuitive
Included with purchase of Qmodem
Excellent documentation & tech support
Includes a simple text editor
Cons: Expensive compared to other QWK readers
Doesn't archive past messages in database
Offline Xpress, or OLX for short, is a new QWK type
offline mail reader published by Mustang Software, the
authors of Wildcat! BBS system. The program is not
completely new however, and was derived from a popular QWK
reader called Silly Little Mail Reader (SLMR). Last year
Mustang bought the rights to SLMR and renamed the program
OLX. At this point there are few differences between the
last release of SLMR, version 2.1a and this version of
OLX, version 2.2. A major rewrite of OLX is currently in
the works and I would expect that future releases will not
resemble this version much. Whether or not this is a good
thing remains to be seen because OLX, in its current
incarnation is a winner.
I believe that the biggest strength of OLX is its ease
of use. The program is presented with a minimum of fuss
and most of controls are obvious. OLX doesn't feature
fancy pull down menus or Lotus style lightbars, but it
suffers little for the omission. In fact, I believe the
simple, yet easy interface is what makes it such a
pleasure to use. I dare say that the user guide, (which
is very good), will never be needed by the majority of
users. Only those seeking to explore some of the more
advanced customization functions will require it.
When OLX is first fired up, a mail packet directory
management shell is displayed. At this point you can
choose the mail packet you wish to open, delete packets,
rename packets or look in alternative directories in case
you don't see the one you are looking for. This feature
comes in handy for those who use the offline mail doors of
several different BBS systems. After choosing the
appropriate mail packet you wish to work with, OLX
displays a short menu that allows you to choose between
reading bulletins, files, mail, or newsletters. Most of
the time you will choose mail, for that is the way to
begin reading and replying to the messages in the areas
you chose to download.
Now we arrive at the core of Offline Xpress. All the
conferences available on the BBS will be displayed and the
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 11
number of messages you downloaded in each are shown. Two
special conferences appear in the upper left corner,
replies and personal. Replies is an OLX work conference
that holds the replies you create during this session and
personal contains messages that are addressed to you
personally. Both of these conferences are sure to be
visited frequently by OLX users.
After choosing a conference, the first message appears
on the screen. The top of the screen shows message header
information - who wrote the message, who the message is
to, the date, conference, title of the message etc. In
OLX, this information is quite colorful and the color
schemes can be highly customized. Importantly, all this
information is clear and easily understandable even at a
glance. All the expected functions are available while
reading a message. The commands are mostly mnemonic and
available with just one keystroke. For example to go to
the next message you would press the [Enter] key, to edit
a message you press [E], to print a message you press [P],
to reply you press [R] and to save a message, (you guessed
it), the [S] key. In case you have difficultly
remembering these keys, help is available throughout OLX
by pressing the standard [F1] key.
Offline Xpress is shipped with its own editor called
OLXED. The editor is rather simple and seemed rather
stark for my tastes. However, it does perform all the
standard text editing functions including block operations
and split screen use allowing you to work on two documents
at one time. It does not make use of pull down menus but
does support the basic set of Wordstar editing commands.
OLX can be configured to use another editor if you have a
personal favorite. I use Qedit, an excellent shareware
text editor with OLX and find it more than suitable for
BBS messaging purposes. However, OLXED has an advantage
of being free while other packages like Qedit require a
separate registration fee on top of the cost of Offline
Xpress.
OLX seems to be designed to appeal to both the novice
and power user. Overall it succeeds well. For the novice
OLX offers simplicity of operation without being a
simplistic program. The clean design of the program is to
thank for this. The novice should be up and running with
OLX in a matter of minutes; installation is a breeze. In
fact, all that is required is to unpack the self
extracting distribution archive! No further configuration
is needed and the first time user will find a short
Welcome QWK packet that serves as a basic tutorial. If
that isn't enough to get you going, there are over forty
pages of well written and easily readable documentation.
The docs explain the entire offline mail process,
operation of OLX and OLXED and even touch on BBS message
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 12
etiquette.
Advanced users that want to delve into the program
will not be disappointed either. Several screens of
configuration options and toggles are present for those
that choose to experiment. Some of these include custom
key assignments, pick lists and substitution variables to
automate repetitive typing, custom colors, tagline
management, reply quoting styles and many options that
change the general behavior of OLX.
Now that I've rambled on for several pages praising
all the good points about OLX, in what areas can the
program be improved? One area where Offline Xpress is
deficient is saving messages. OLX does have a "Save
Message" function but it is rudimentary. The program
simply prompts you for a filename and then dumps the
message and header information on your disk. Some
programs like Speed Read (also reviewed in this issue)
employ a database design that allows sophisticated
archiving of old messages into a database format. This
allows for industrial strength retrieval, sorting, and
printing at a later date. Many allow the option to
compress these archived messages as well.
Tagline support could be beefed up as well. OLX does
make use of taglines, but they are simply stored in a text
file and advanced options such as those found in the John
Hancock Tagline Manager are nowhere to be found. In
addition, although OLX has an option to "steal" a tagline
from the current message, it rarely works - forcing you to
manually type in the tagline. Finally, on my machine, I
found OLX to load and swap itself rather slowly. Users
with older hardware and limited memory will find
themselves with plenty of time to daydream between disk
intensive operations.
Taken as a whole, OLX is a fine choice for an offline
reader. Its price, $40, is a little steep, but it is also
available as part of the Qmodem communications package
where it is included for free. Qmodem (suggested retail
price $99) is frequently heavily discounted by the
retailers that carry it, so that may be the better
bargain. With registration, OLX users are also entitled
to voice phone support from Mustang's technical support
staff, a rarely among offline readers.
* Speed Read, Version 1.00
Reviewed by Eric Hunt
(reprinted with permission)
Pros: Database design for storing messages
Extensive, context sensitive online help
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 13
Automatic splitting of long messages
Excellent RIME routing support
Many tagline features
Cons: Slower than traditional QWK readers
Can't shut off taglines entirely
Weak threading and sorting
Offline mail readers have been around for several
years now, and their novelty and newness is wearing off.
From the original two or three readers to today's dozens
of them, generally there has been room for improvement,
room for distinct innovation. SPEED Read provides that
improvement and innovation. Based upon what is commonly
called the 'database style' mail reader, SPEED Read
provides all the flexibility and power that one can expect
from a traditional offline mail reader, while adding the
capability to archive, or 'database,' entire message
bases from reading session to reading session. One can now
maintain an entire collection of messages from a
particular conference and have them accessible at the
touch of a key. SPEED Read has a proven capacity of
between 3000 and 4000 messages, depending on local system
configurations. That's a lot of messages, folks!
Installing SPEED Read is very easy. After typing in
the random 5 digit 'unregistered' code, you are presented
with a short configuration screen that allows you to tell
SPEED where to look for incoming .QWKs, where to place
outgoing .REPs, what editor/command line combination to
use, various utility programs you might wish to use, all
the basics for getting any mail reader started.
Opening and reading a packet is as simple as
selecting the BBS with waiting mail in it and pressing
<enter.> From there, SPEED unzips the .QWK, and builds the
new BBS database. That takes a short while, and SPEED even
has logic to detect if you have multiple packets from the
same BBS waiting on you (i.e. BBS.QWK BBS.QW0 BBS.QW1).
Then you are presented with a list of conferences. At
first I found the conference list quite daunting, as ALL
conferences are displayed, regardless of whether they have
mail or not. But a quick press of F1, and I'm introduced
to one of SPEED Read's strongest points: Extensive
context-sensitive online help. In fact, I am told that the
entire written manual for SPEED was developed primarily
from the online help screens, they're that good. Help
tells me that there are various easy to use keystrokes
that will move me around in the conference area listing.
No more anxiety. Conferences can be added/dropped from the
main conference area listing. However, the QMAIL 4.0
add/drop commands are not supported directly, you'll have
to generate those messages by hand.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 14
While every reader has its differences, the largest
of all is the placement of keys to move around a message
base. Every reader I've used has a different layout. With
that said, SPEED Read has the standard controls for moving
around a message base, with special keys to mark
individual messages to either be KEPT no matter what, or
KILLED no matter what in the message database. While
reading messages, ANSI messages can be displayed on
screen, but the ANSI support is NOT internal, ANSI.SYS or
a compatible device driver must be present in your
config.sys. This is not a drawback, however, as internal
ANSI support would unnecessarily bloat the code for SPEED.
And messages can be saved to text files for use elsewhere.
The message header is also included on messages saved to
disk (outside of the database, in other words.)
SPEED Read can be configured to bring up the reply
information dialogue box before, after, or before and
after you write the reply. I have mine setup to show the
box after I reply, but you can change it to
whatever you like. Another strong point of SPEED Read is
evident in the reply info dialogue: Picklists. Picklists
allow you to press a key, and have a listing of possible
values for that particular entry field be displayed.
Taglines, TO:, FROM:, CONF#, all have picklists. They are
very powerful, and very handy. You can 'tell' the TO:
picklist to keep a list of commonly used TO: names that
are persistent from session to session. And moving a reply
to a message from one conference to another is as easy as
popping up the conference picklist and selecting the
conference you wish to move the reply. Searching for
taglines/conferences is also very easy using the
picklists.
The support for long messages in SPEED is mixed.
Users can enter long messages, and SPEED will break them
into neat, nice, 100 line chunks as multiple messages. If
you need to re-edit a long message, the split messages are
invisibly recombined behind the scenes, and you are
presented with the original message again. However, if you
download a message more than 100 lines, SPEED will only
display the first 100.
RIME routing in SPEED is present, and done very well.
The default is to insert the routing code on ALL RIME
replies, which is nice, since deleting it takes one
keystroke in the editor. What's even better is
that a LONG (100+ line) routed message has the routing
code inserted on EACH INDIVIDUAL part of the message, a
godsend for those sending long messages on RIME.
Taglines are handled exceptionally well by SPEED
Read. The user can have any number of different tagline
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 15
'files,' each containing 100 tags. Switching between tag
files is painless. SPEED also fully supports the
add-in tagline manager, John Hancock II. Stealing tags is
a breeze. Hit 't' while reading a message, and SPEED looks
in the proper place for the tag. If you like what it
thinks the tag is, fine. If you don't, you can
scroll through EACH LINE of the message, stealing any line
in the message you wish. Extremely powerful for those
people with lists of tags inside messages, or those that
don't use standard style readers.
Keeping the message base up to date has been a
problem with other database .QWK readers. SPEED Read has
taken steps to minimize this problem. First of all, you
can tell the reader how many old messages to retain in a
conference. The default is 50, but that can be changed to
whatever number you wish. I have some of the technical
conferences set to 500 old messages, some of the chitchat
to 100, and some of the 'I'm just glancing at it'
conferences to retain *0* messages. Yep, that's
right, you can tell SPEED not to keep any messages in a
conference from session to session. In fact, you can
effectively turn SPEED Read into a '.QWK-at-a-time' reader
by setting ALL the keep old's to Zero. Handy.
And if you're so inclined, you can set all conference keep
old messages to one number with one keystroke. Purging
(deleting the oldest messages as they get moved past the
keep old number) is done automatically each time a new
packet is imported, but can be done manually. The
auto-purge is nice, you never have to worry about the
message base growing out of hand. Also, the message bases
can be stored in either compressed or uncompressed state.
This is VERY nice for those out there with smaller hard
disks. The compression is done with PKZIP, and is
automatic, just say the word, and SPEED does it. Finally,
SPEED has detection routines to prevent you from losing
unsaved replies in the even of a power failure, system
crash, etc. This feature has saved me several times!
While I could go on and on about the good things in
SPEED Read, there are some little annoyances. First of
them is ironically the name! SPEED is not a speed demon
when compared to traditional QWK-at-a-time readers.
HOWEVER, when you evaluate the fact that an entire message
database is being kept, SPEED works pretty darn fast! The
importing of new messages into the conferences at the
start of a session can become slow, even on my 386sx, as
the number of old messages retained increases. Another
minor annoyance is the lack of huge tagline support.
Instead of unlimited numbers of 100 tag tagline files, 1
file containing unlimited tags would be better. QMAIL 4.0
ADD/DROP would be nice, in addition to the current
MarkMail style add/drop. SPEED Read does not allow anyone,
not even registered users, to completely suppress the
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 16
generation of taglines, including the SPEED stamp. This
primarily prevents users with registration numbers from
posting in conferences where their identity is best left
unknown, such as the 12-step, or Recovery conferences.
Threading and sorting in this release is also a bit weak,
but I personally prefer to read messages in a straight
line, like the old days, so that doesn't bother me much.
The author of SPEED Read, Jim Smith, has directly
addressed every concern I have above except the complete
removal of all traces of a tagline and stated that the
rest are slated to be fixed/added in a 'future version.'
In addition, Jim has gone above and beyond the call of
duty in providing product support for this offline mail
reader. He has his own product support conference on the
U'NI-net/US echomail network, and is active in the
SHAREWARE and OFFLINE conferences of many other
nets, including RIME, ILINK, U'NI, and soon FidoNet.
Product Support is another gem SPEED Read can add to its
hat. Another kudo for Jim is his decision to allow give
ALL REGISTERED USERS of SPEED the chance to beta
test new releases of the software as he writes them.
Currently, version 1.20 is being pounded out of the
compiler, and registered users now have access to new
features such as RAM drive support for the workspace
In short, SPEED Read is an innovative product in a
sometimes stagnant shareware marketplace, and has an
extremely bright future ahead of it. SPEED is easy enough
for beginners and powerful enough for the old pro's. The
database of messages can prove invaluable to many people,
and makes life easier for those on erratic schedules. The
reader is continually improved and the author is extremely
receptive to suggestions and critiques of his product.
Registration for SPEED Read is $25, a *very* competitive
price in light of an extensive feature list.
Editor's Note:
This article originally appeared in the February 1992
edition of The Birmingham Telecommunications New. (c) 1992
Since this review the author has released version 1.10
which includes several new features and bug fixes.
S N E A K P R E V I E W
Occasionally Carrier Detect will describe forthcoming
releases of popular software. Often this information is
difficult to obtain because some software publishers are
reluctant to reveal the direction of their products.
However, future enhancements should be of great interest
to the end users running the program. It can help
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 17
determine whether or not a program will continue to meet
an individual's future needs or if the upgrade will
address a deficiency that the owner has perceived. In
short, it can heighten anticipation or alert someone it is
time to start shopping. The public release of the
software may or may not be similar to what is described
below.
* Wildcat! BBS v3.50
Expected Release Date June 21, 1992
What follows is a listing of some of the major
features and changes Wildcat! sysops can expect in the
forthcoming release of Wildcat! 3.5. While this article
will mostly be of interest to Wildcat! sysops and frequent
callers, sysops of other BBS software may wish to take a
peek to see if their software is "keeping up with the
Jones".
Wildcat! version 3.5 adds many new features. Sysops,
mark your calenders; June 21 is the date Mustang's
development team has slated for the unveiling of Wildcat!
version 3.5. Copies will be mailed to subscribers of the
Auto Update Plan beginning June 14 in an effort to have
them delivered by the release date. The rest of the world
won't be able to order the new Wildcat! until after June
21. Call 1-800-999-9619 to order the Auto Update plan now
and be assured of getting Wildcat! 3.5 as soon as it is
released!
There's quite possibly "something for everyone" in this
new release - read on...
Security
- Wildcards are now supported in the "filter" files
BADKEYS, BADALIAS, BADFILES and BADNAMES. For instance, a
sysop who wants to prevent uploads of files ending in .GIF
could put *.GIF in BADFILES.LST - any file matching that
wildcard would be rejected. Various misspellings of cuss
words can also be filtered using wildcards.
- Questionnaires now support "answered required" fields,
which require the user to fill in a field before preceding
to the next question. This saves sysops from the
headaches of verifying new users who fail to answer
important information such as telephone numbers or
address.
- Security specific display files are now supported
allowing statements to be placed in display files such as
@IFSEC=NEWUSER@. This construct indicates that text
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 18
following would be seen only by people with NEWUSER
security profile. Also supported is @ELSEIF@ and @ENDIF@.
The text between the @ macros is only displayed if your
security level profiles matches.
Files
- External protocols which create a standard DSZ.LOG are
now supported directly. This means that Wildcat! is able
to maintain an accurate download count for callers who use
external protocols. Many external protocols support the
DSZ.LOG format, so this should make configuration easier
than ever. By supporting DSZ.LOG, Wildcat! 3.5 can also
utilize the HS-Link and Bimodem bidirectional protocols.
- The [V]iew file option now automatically displays text
files as well as compressed files directly, invoking the
VIEWCOMP.BAT for compressed files only.
- An external protocol may new be selected as a caller's
default protocol.
- Marked files are now denoted with an asterisk beside
the line number when listing files.
- A new configuration option in Makewild allows
downloadable files to be copied to a local hard drive if
the "On CD" flag in the database is set to "Yes". This
helps speed up multi-user access to CD-ROM drives, and
really improves performance with the new CD-ROM changers.
Messages
- Callers can now upload files via protocols into the
message editor. This works locally also and is a great
way to import text into a message from any file or
directory. Long text files are automatically split into
multiple messages if necessary.
- Fast login switch via ! (exclamation point) now takes
users directly to Tomcat.
- The "Scanning Conference xx" prompt now self-erases,
much like the file area prompt, when reading mail in
"Selected" or "All" conferences.
- Novell users will like the automatic mail notification
and automatic login features - both make use of the "Full
Name" field in Netware's user account. When a message is
entered on the BBS to a user on the network, that user can
be notified. Local logins can make use of the /B Novell
command line switch to automatically fill in the user
name, no password required.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 19
- Message threading based on subject field has been
added. This allows messages imported by network mail
programs to thread properly.
- Point and crash mail support was added for Fido
netmail.
Chat
- /Page option in multi-user chat now allows users to
page others into chat.
Configuration
- The event scheduler has been revised considerable.
Existing events can now be edited (rather than deleting,
then reentering the event). Events are also automatically
sorted by day and time, to prevent execution in the wrong
order.
- Support for newer modems capable of 14400, 16800 and
other connect speeds has been added, by allowing a range
of speeds to be entered for each baud rate.
- Individual configuration changes in conference and
security profile configurations can now be applied
globally. For instance, when new nodes are added, access
to that node can be added globally, rather than editing
each security level profile definition.
- Many other new features have been added - a complete
listing will be posted as a bulletin at the MSI HQ BBS as
the testing procedure nears completion.
---
Editor's Note:
This article was originally printed in the Volume I, Issue
III edition of The MSI Monitor (c) 1992. Reprinted with
permission.
W R I T E R 'S R O U N D U P
Writer's Roundup is a department that features
creative writing submissions from readers. Essays,
fictional stories, and poems are examples of the kind of
reading that you might find here. However, each will
share a common theme of computers and communications.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 20
REFLECTIONS 3 (C) 1986-87 by Steve Schneider
(reprinted with permission)
Dateline : The RainForest BBS
Time : 2 am On a Friday
NEWSLETTERS.... yep; newsletters. I have a rather
unique distinction in the BBS world. I'm one of the
few sysops that also publish a hard copy type Newsletter
(bimonthly) with facts, blurbs and figures on paper for
(in my particular case) paying Members of my system and
a few honored guests and to anyone else that can scrape
up a $.22 stamp. Every time I sit down to write the
darned thing I learn to appreciate the people that are
able to just whip up ten thousand characters of
humor, information, fact and fiction with seemingly
little effort.
It all started out innocently enough; in fact, it was
so easy to think of I never even considered the
consequences. When we first started a BBS (in 84) my son
had the idea of a Newsletter to accompany the
message base. Naturally I said no. After all; why print
something out on paper that could be stored on the BBS
electronically??
After a few well chosen words (Because I'm the adult
and you're the child; =THAT's= why!!) the discussion
digressed to me throwing a box of disks at his head as he
ducked around the corner. That's where the discussion
stayed for almost a year..... then a rival BBS moved
into the fray; previously on-line in west Florida the BBS
hit the East coast with a vengeance. It was so unlike
the local BBSes and yet so good. And for the first time
in my life I paid for access to a BBS system.....yep;
part of the advantage of being a Member (Sponsor) was a
hard copy newsletter.
I also became good friends with the sysop of the
system and there is a bit of friendly competition
amongst the two systems. Kids are welcome on both
systems but since they are expected to act as adults (and
are reminded with 'NastyGrams' which may be private
or public) the flakes soon depart to kiddie systems
leaving the more mature behind to share the warmth of the
'inner sanctum' so to speak. We have a lot in common,
he and I; and the Newsletters (he claims the World's
first... I've tried to explain the others.) are
something we each publish in our own way that serves as
a reminder to Members (both active and not) that our
systems are something special as so are the people that
call.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 21
In the past year or so I've also had the opportunity
to capture (and store in my General files) all of
Kent Fillmore's (DracoNET and GEnie NET) electronic
newsletters, The Carrier. I wish I had the ability to
write as he does... and to get involved in all that he
does; The Carrier makes for a bit of nice reading. And
since Kent passes it along electronically, it goes to a
hell of a lot more people... 16,000 was the last official
estimate I heard and by now I'm sure the number is very
much higher.
As you may, or may not have guessed, I write a
bit (for pleasure, of course; who's going to =PAY= for
this drivel?) as the mood hits and since the mood is
not always reliable, I am left grasping for straws when
I'm halfway through a newsletter and go brain dead
at 2 am on a Thursday morning with the sounds of the
national anthem on channel 33 winding down. You can
never know the anguish of trying to fill in 90 more lines
of text with a blank mind until =YOU= personally have to
do it. , you ask; where's the number one son that
came up with the original 'bright' idea of a newsletter
in the first place? He's asleep without a care in his
soul. (Kids!)
What do I do for inspiration? I stew in my own
juices for what seems like hours and then something
always pops into my thoughts; a catalyst if you wish and
BAM, the thoughts start to flow again... sometimes. (as
for the other times....ppfffffffffffffftt; I save what
I've done and hit the sack and pray like hell for better
inspiration on the day after.....or the day after...or
the day after...) ; I'm not actually getting paid to do
this stuff so "what me worry'?
I'm lucky, I guess. The type of work I do allows me to
make copies for free and since I repair these machines I
can play around with the copies to get the desired
effect. It's been over a year now and I've given
the responsibility of designing a permanent Logo /
Letterhead to the third person I've contacted; geez; no
one wants to do excellence for nothing. The other
two artists said they would but never did...<sigh> And
I'm not capable of doing it myself. My mom always
thought I was a GREAT artist but it was all done with
mirrors, you know? So anyhow; one of these days I'll have
all my stuff together and then maybe the newsletter
will match the rest of The RainForest... a consideration
of excellence.
As for these short stories on the various systems
that I've uploaded to or those that may have done me
the honor of downloading my stories to add to their
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 22
downloads/files I say =THANKS=... And I hope to do better
with each I write. Have a wonderful evening....
REFLECTIONS 4 (C) 1986-87 by Steve Schneider
Dateline : The RainForest BBS
Time : 1130 PM On a Thursday
Where have all the good ones gone; I can hear you
asking... (sung to the tune of 'Where have all the flowers
gone...). You know the ones I'm talking about. The users
that make the BBS what it is. The user that is a talkative
son of a gun and leaves twenty interesting messages a
call; the user that doesn't say much but when he (or she)
does you read every word and nod your head; the user who
leaves a posting or two that continually leaves you in
stitches gasping for air.....anything said is guaranteed
to brighten your day (or evening); the user who says
things so naive or even stupid that you automatically
cringe when reading the message; the sultry writer that
has your wife so jealous when you read a post who is
really 300 pounds and homely; the kid (or adult) on
the system that continually leaves e-mail asking for
personal answers to things on the system for which there
are already easily read, extensive HELP files; the one
user that is positively guaranteed to upset you when you
see the name on a message header; the user that always has
the answer to the technical question another user has
posted..... the people...
Where do they go when they disappear? Some users
simply scroll off the screen forever.. you never see
them again on any system. They disappear! Did their
computer blow up? Did their modem fry? Did their mother
catch them phreaking and take the computer away for good?
Did they die? Did they move?? Did the police finally
catch up with them? Did they become system operators
incognito on a system of their own?
Or did they =JUST= say "To hell with it!!"? For most
users on a BBS there is a bit of give and take; you give
whatever knowledge or wit or pleasure you can to a
system and in turn you take back a bit from the system
and it's users. A majority of the ones that disappear
forever though constantly gave and never received... I
almost took that route a long time ago. I used to write
between thirty and fifty messages a day spread out on the
seven to ten BBSes I called daily. In the beginning the
mystique of the data flow and the green glow in the night
were rewards enough... every word I wrote a gem (or so I
thought)... I always wondered if those sysops missed me
when I was on vacation. After a bit of time (a year
or so for me) I started 'burning out' and could no
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 23
longer write those 30-50 twenty line messages a day and I
became negative in my attitude towards the BBSes.
I was already running the RainForest so I'm not sure,
in my case, whether I felt a tinge of guilt at
supporting my competition and slowed down or whether I
really felt I had given all I could. I think in most cases
of the really GREAT users though (and I wouldn't presume
to count myself as being among them) they reach a point
of having done so much for so long for so many that they
can't accept the fact that they can't keep the flow
going.. and rather than admit, and accept, being a
'normal' user they quit it altogether.
Or sometimes we, as sysops, drive them away with an
innocent show of anger. I did that to a user I'll call
the 'Laughing Alien' who wrote messages so complicated in
context yet so damned humorous that he kept me in stitches
for hours when I'd read his messages and comments. The guy
was a natural; I had him on my system when ten other
systems in town wanted him; he only called a couple and
expended all his literary talents on the few (and the
lucky). He made a public comment once about a feature
on my system and I ask him for clarification in e-mail
which he decided to ignore and bring public again. As it
were, I then left a message explaining the ignorance of
his idea (which I would have worded a bit nicer if he had
left an answer in e-mail) and I lost him. Oh; he
writes every now and then but not like before and
certainly not with the passion he once did on this
system.... yes; on a competing system he does what he
used to do on mine. (And I accept full blame; after all,
system operators aren't supposed to lash out at users...
that's not the way the game is played.) I miss him and
his humor....somehow it's just not the same reading it on
another system.
I digressed; I apologized... I was lamenting the
ones that disappear that we =DON'T= know what happened
to. As a sysop (I like the term, system manager
better...) I feel that in most cases we grow to expect
too much from some of those users and when they feel they
can no longer deliver they duck out so they don't fail.
As for the others; some never really did fit in a BBS
environment and they soon leave for greener pastures; some
die; some go to jail; some lose their computers to momma
or papa; some fall in love; some grow up; some put up
their own systems.... and some disappear with no
explanation.
As a sysop I miss them all. =EVERY= user is a part of
a BBS (both the good and the bad users) and what they
contribute is immeasurable. When I -kill- a user for not
being on in the past 60 days I really do wonder what
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 24
happened to them...<sigh> and then I hit the switch to
make room for more users... and if I'm really
fortunate, I find a gem or two along the way.
Unfortunately, misfortune strikes more often than
fortune; Much more often....
May all your users be with you forever!
---
Steve Schneider is the System Operator of RainForest BBS
in Cooper City, Florida. He can be reached at his BBS,
(305)-434-4927.
B Y T E L I N E
Fast facts, tips, comments and rumors on all kinds of
computer related topics.
* BYTELINE
By Michael Crosson and Tom Garcia
dBase IV ver. 1.5 beta is out there. [It will be] The
first offering from Borland, aimed at the existing user
base. (New data base buyers probably buy FOX PRO). Ver.
1.1 is what you can buy right now. 1.5 is mostly
Ashton-Tate code revamped.
IS THAT EVER BETTER! Go into your WIN.INI file and
comment out PROGMAN.EXE and insert in its place MSDOS.EXE.
Back to the real world!
TO RUN WINDOWS you need at least a 386/33 in my humble
opinion. It's just too slow any other way.
OUR SECRET SOFTWARE lab in North Dakota is still on the
job even though everyone else in the state has moved to
Nevada, Idaho, or Arizona. They recently purchased a
"trial version" of GEOS ENSEMBLE for $9.95 which does most
everything but let you save files. There is an 800 number
but I lost it. Watch for their ad.
THE NEWEST GEOS, known as GEO PRO incorporates BORLAND's
slimmed down version of QUATTRO PRO, the SE (Special
edition) version. SE alone is available from various
sources for $49. QUATTRO is one of the few programs that
is actually fun to use.
JUST DOWNLOADED the new CIM software from CompuServe. It
costs $10 but download time is free and you get a $10
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 25
usage credit for your next bill. Latest version of CIM is
ver. 2.01.
GEE WHIZ DEPT. My Seagate SCSI drive has been in service
for about a year and hasn't crashed yet. Good thing 'cause
my old rescue standby SPINRITE won't work with an SCSI
drive/card combination.
BUILD A COMPUTER? Checked with LIGHTNING re. their
motherboards. Which are: 386/40 at $495 and 486/33 at
$995. (Anyone know a discount source for LIGHTNING
motherboards?) No extras on their boards such as VGA or
HD/FD controller. Maybe better that way? (see next para.)
Advantage to building up your own computer out
of parts: You know what's in it and you know that it's all
standard parts. Standard parts and cards are easy to
replace. Replacement often costs less than repair and you
don't have to deal with repair persons. Many name brand
computers (latest models, anyhow) have VGA, HD/FD, etc.,
on the motherboard but they also have proprietary parts
such as power supplies that you HAVE TO BUY from them when
replacements are needed. Not good. The names ALR, AST,
COMPAQ, EVEREX and NEC come to mind.
SO, WHAT is the logic behind not wanting the extras on the
motherboard? Well, when you decide to upgrade to that
latest "must have" cache controller or 99,000 color
2,048x2,048 Super-Super VGA card you will want to disable
the onboard electronics anyhow. You can disable it can't
you? It does have jumpers to do that (you hope) and you
can find them?
LESSONS LEARNED: When shopping for a laptop (or notebook)
think about memory expansion. The magazines are full of
ads for such memory. An ad recently seen gives prices of
$119 for two megs for a TI Travelmate 3000 and $199 for
two megs for a Zenith MasterSport. Looks like the TI is a
better candidate for upgrade. A Tandon upgrade of two megs
is $139. That's the Tandon 386 notebook, not the earlier
386 laptop. The laptop (which I have) needs a two meg
package sold (so I'm told) only by Tandon at $325!
Ouch.....(For just $650 (($325x2)) I can have 5 megs. I
wonder if theyever sold any of that expensive memory to
anyone but the government?
THERE IS A PROGRAM OUT there called MEMKIT from Biologic.
With some trial and error (an hour or so) I got it
installed and ended up with almost 600K (8 bytes short) of
memory for programs....
The commercial program 386MAX gives me 598,528 free memory
with the same TSR's & drivers installed. Maybe MEMKIT
could be tweeked some to make it do even better... Look
for it on the BBS. It's shareware & costs $39 for the
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 26
latest version (without the sales pitch which requires you
to "press any key" several different times as the
shareware version loads.)
CROSS TALK for WINDOWS free "working model." To get yours
call 1-800-348-DCA-1, ext. 83U.
GEOWORKS PRO (with QUATTRO PRO SE) demo disk costs $9.95
(refundable if you buy it). Call 1-800-772-0001, ext.
202C.
FREE DEMO DISK for MATHCAD (for WINDOWS) 1-800-MATHCAD.
ANOTHER FREE ONE: dBFast (WINDOWS) 1-800-645-3003.
HERE IS a goodie - HARVARD DRAW for WINDOWS (doesn't
anything new come out these days that isn't for WINDOWS?)
Free demo disk - Call 1-800-336-8360, Operator 656.
M.Y.O.B. WINDOWS Accounting demo ($5), 1-800-237-8400,
ext. 586.
Q&A 4.0 free demo disk - 1-800-228-4122, ext. 104-D.
MapInfo (Desktop mapping, whatever that is?) A free copy
on 3.5 inch disk (HD?) call 1-800-358-7676 Ex. 200.
LEGACY 2.0 demo, 1-800-NBI-1111.
AMI PRO 2.0 demo, 1-800-545-6116.
ANOTHER way to get rid of The WINDOWS logo on startup: Go
into WIN.COM and find LOGO. Change it to lOGO (lower case
L).
QUICKEN (5.0 - maybe earlier versions) undocumented
options: While at the main menu try hitting V,H, and M.
"M" is the most interesting as it tells you how much
memory is left.
NEXT YEAR'S release of DOS 6.0 will be bundled with
WINDOWS 4.0 and they will be tightly integrated, so the
rumor source sez.
BEFORE THEN Microsoft should have their database program
out the door ( by the end of this year.) What with a
spread sheet and a word processor it's about all they need
to fill out their product line. Of course, it will be a
WINDOWS program.
HAVE YOU HEARD good things about STACKER 2.0? They are all
true. My laptop was getting a case of severe HD overload.
The 40 meg HD is now (it thinks) a 79 meg HD. I see very
little degradation in program load/save speed. It is
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 27
costing me some RAM overhead but it's worth it. If I had
EMS in the laptop STACKER would use about 18K. Without EMS
it uses about 40K.
PC SOFTWARE & SUPPLY sez: Many virus like to attach
themselves to COMMAND.COM. You can copy your COMMAND.COM
to BACKUP.XXX (or some such) and then place a command in
AUTOEXEC.BAT to copy BACKUP.XXX to COMMAND.COM which
places a fresh new copy of your command interpreter in
your root each time you boot.
MORE FROM the VIRUS front: Four disks arrived from a
writer's round table I belong to. Two were infected with
the STONED virus. I cleaned them up before sending them
on. Someone in the round table has a problem. STONED (from
New Zealand, I'm told) gets in your boot sector on both
hard and floppy disks. The first time I found STONED I
checked some floppies and found an old one (really
old, DOS 3.2) that was infected. What does STONED do? It
has never displayed anything on my screen.... I haven't
seen any really bad stuff unless some of those old
unexplained crashes were the result of STONED? I have also
come up with STONED II on one occasion. None of my 3.5
inch disks have been infected, just the 5 1/4 and my hard
drive.
LOTS OF computer mailorder firms give you free software
with their computers. (Of course, whatever computer you
buy will be superseded by a better model at a lower cost
the day your machine arrives.) Well, right now I'd suggest
you hold off buying 'till WINDOWS ver. 3.1 is the included
software. That may even happen between now (Feb 5th) and
when these NOTES are uploaded on about March 1st. [April
is the current rumor date.]
YOU PROBABLY remember to de-frag your hard drive every now
and then. How about re-running MAXIMIZE or whatever
program came with your memory manager? After complaining
about how much memory the STACKER driver took I re-ran the
386MAX reorganization program and was able to put most of
STACKER's overhead up in extended memory (or upper memory
or high RAM or somewhere.) I now have 620K available for
programs (before I load NORTON COMMANDER).
ONE MUST WONDER if there will ever be a MS WORD version
beyond ver. 5.5, a WORD PERFECT version beyond 5.1,
etc.... New DOS versions, that is.....
WORD for WINDOWS came out on top in a late Feb. issue of
PC MAGAZINE that tested most of the WINDOWS word
processors. ..... Interesting how WORD for WINDOWS 1.0
runs (one of the few) in WINDOWS real mode. WORD for
WINDOWS 2.0 won't run in real mode.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 28
THE SECRET software testing lab in North Dakota sent me a
program purchased in that area at a retail price of $3.33.
It's from Vision Software, has a 1988 copyright date, and
is called Carol White's Office Manager. Lots of "menu"
style features such as a calculator, appointment
scheduler, alarm clock, etc. The ROLLODEX is particularly
nice. Well, the price is right. Major problem: The memory
resident program takes up 135K of your conventional
RAM. Guess that's why Peter Norton is a household word and
Carol White isn't.
THAT'S INTERESTING: My TANDON laptop doesn't want (won't)
format a 720K disk but it will take any DD 3.5 inch floppy
and, without a need for the extra hole, format it at 1.44
megs.
I AM UPLOADING to the BBS several Russian programs. One is
a Cyrillic keyboard and display driver. With EGA or VGA
you can toggle between Cyrillic and Roman characters by
just hitting <left shift> <right shift> keys
simultaneously. Unfortunately I have not found a way to
send the Cyrillic output to my Epson printer. And, the
keyboard does not transliterate Cyrillic and Roman
characters. That is, the Roman "K" which is the same
character and the same sound in Russian and in English
(more or less) does not come up on screen when you hit
your QWERTY keyboard's "K" letter. Instead you get the
Cyrillic letter that is the equivalent of (but is written
differently) of the Roman "L". What this boils down to:
Their typewriters evidently are not based on QWERTY or any
modified version of it. So, Cyrillic is interesting to
look at on the EGA/VGA screen but I don't see much of a
practical application. If there were a companion printer
driver it would be worth my while to make a keyboard
overlay and then. I could mix Roman and Cyrillic. A friend
overseas does write to me in mixed alphabets but I haven't
asked him how he does it..... There is also a game called
"Perestroyka" that has as its object - Keep the little man
in a circle. The circles get smaller and smaller and you
have to use the direction arrows to move him to a safe
area. Some of the circles have symbols and landing on one
of these circles gets you points. ... There is also a
humorous text about the famous Russian movie spy Shtiritz.
It has a Preface, ten chapters, and a Conclusion. Be sure
and have the screen driver RK.COM loaded before you view
(by TYPING) the story, SOVIET.DOC. This is all public
domain stuff from a Russian citizen via a U.S. type who
received it on disk and uploaded it to CompuServe. For
those SYSOPS who are not enamored of games, this one is a
demonstration of Russian programming rather than anything
else (I hope you will agree).
BACKUP PROGRAMS - You can have them. Just tried a well
known one. I told it to back itself up to a 1.44 disk. The
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 29
program (about 12 files) was a 900K job. It tried. The
floppy drive made lots of grinding sounds. Things seemed
to be progressing (slowly) but I finally got a message,
"disk is defective" and the backup came to a halt. There
wasn't anything wrong with the disk. So, I went to Plan B
which is my usual plan. ZIPPED the 12 files (to 450K) and
moved the ZIP to the floppy. No problem there.
WENT BACK and tried Microsoft WORKS (Ver. 2.0) again.
Hadn't looked at it since I bought it two years ago. I
liked it even better this time. Would save a lot of disk
space (it takes about 1.44 megs without the tutorial) if I
replaced QUATTRO PRO and MS WORD with WORKS. But, a big
problem soon presented itself. You can't LINK cells from
various files into other files in the spreadsheet,
something I have come to rely on. Wonder if there will
ever be a Ver. 3.0 of WORKS?
GOTTFRIED LOPEZ with an answer to the above question about
WORKS. There is an upgrade for WORKS "in the works" at
Microsoft. (That is, if my source isn't confusing WORKS
for DOS with WORKS for WINDOWS). A few people are supposed
to have the beta version. Microsoft tells me they didn't
include spreadsheet linking in WORKS because linking is an
advanced feature and they want to keep WORKS simple. If
you want linking Tom, you should upgrade to EXCEL which
has every feature you might ever need.
SURE, I'll run right out and buy (assuming I don't already
have) EXCEL 3.0, WINDOWS 3.0, and while I'm at it I might
as well get a 486 so it will run almost as fast as 1-2-3
on an 8088 XT. Trying to keep it simple? For simple minded
users? It's quite a jump from the $99 [street price] WORKS
to WINDOWS/EXCEL, etc. Another plan, if I really need
spreadsheet linking: Stick with QUATTRO PRO, which I
already have.
NORTON COMMANDER needs 15,888 bytes while loaded. Unload
it via <F10> to recover that memory before running an
application if you need the extra memory.
TOO BAD Q&A Write never got past Version 1.01 because I
still like it as well as any of the "big name" products.
Maybe better than them. It's small (less than a meg of
disk space), fast, and has an easy to use macro system.
Doesn't have a graphics mode and it's hard to see some of
the menus on a LCD panel. SYMANTEC has no interest in the
program. There is no info on it in the SYMANTEC Forum on
CompuServe.... You could buy Q&A Ver. 4.0 for SYMANTEC's
latest DOS wordprocessor but the WP is not the major part
of that database program... You could buy JUSTWRITE (for
WINDOWS) from SYMANTEC I suppose, and have a modern word
processor.
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 30
ANOTHER UPLOAD now in the BBS files area: R.ZIP (R.COM), a
Russian EGA/VGA screen/keyboard driver. Resident and
unloadable via the R/U command. It was written by Herman
Dovzhenko, a Moscow programmer. You may like the screen
display of R.COM a little better than that of the RK.COM
driver.
ALSO, VOPRINT.ZIP, a printer driver (Epson/IBM) that
allows you to print a Cyrillic or mixed Cyrillic/Roman
file. It does its thing via graphics so the best you can
get with a dot matrix printer is "draft" quality. It does
make RK.COM and R.COM much more useful.
A FREE copy (demo) of CROSSTALK for WINDOWS is yours for a
telephone call. 1-800-348-DCA-1, Ext. 83A.
F E E D B A C K
I am interested in getting as much feedback as
possible regarding Carrier Detect and welcome suggestions
or any other comments you may have. If you are a software
publisher or shareware author and want to submit your
program for possible inclusion in future issues you are
welcome to do so. Finally, if you are interested in
writing an article or review, please let me know!
Prospector BBS - The Home of Carrier Detect
(916) 921-9949, 24 hours, 2400 to 14.4K (v.32bis)
First call access to Carrier Detect Related Files and
shareware programs reviewed in the current issue.
Home Mailing Address:
811 San Juan Road #199, Sacramento, CA 95834
D I S T R I B U T I O N S I T E S
Carrier Detect Distribution Sites are BBSes that make
all issues of Carrier Detect, the Carrier Detect Reader,
and the Carrier Detect Reader Door available for download.
If you are having trouble finding a BBS carries the
journal, try one of these sites! I am looking for a
additional distribution sites. If you enjoy the journal
please consider becoming a site.
BBS Name Sysop Phone Number Baud
Prospector BBS Michael Crosson (916) 921-9949 14.4
Hour Glass BBS Lyn Borchert (602) 326-2999 14.4
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 31
P R O D U C T I N F O R M A T I O N
Following is product information for the products
reviewed in this issue of Carrier Detect. If you are
interested in purchasing or evaluating any of the products
please note the publisher's address listed below. In
addition, all current shareware programs featured in
Carrier Detect will be made available to first time
callers on the Carrier Detect Support BBS.
BLUEWAVE OFFLINE MAIL READER
distributed as shareware
version 2.00
registration - $25
published by - Blue Wave Software
PO Box 1057
Flint, MI 48503
- The Blue Wave Software Support BBSes
The Wild! Blue BBS The Flight of the
Raven 1-313-743-8464 1-313-232-7815
Flint, Michigan Flint, Michigan 2400
Baud N-8-1 9600 HST/v32 N-8-1
FidoNet 1:2240/176 FidoNet 1:2240/107
Sysop: George Hatchew Sysop: Fred Rappuhn
OFFLINE XPRESS
distributed as a commercial product
fully functional "test drive" version is available
version 2.2
price - $40 (also included as part of Qmodem 5.01)
published by - Mustang Software
Post Office Box 2264
Bakersfield, CA 93303-2264
support BBS - (805) 395-0650
SPEED READER
distributed as shareware
version 1.00
price - $25
published by - J.E. Smith
344 Observatory Drive
Birmingham, AL 35206
support BBS - (205) 744-8546
WILDCAT! BBS
distributed as a commercial product
Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 32
fully functional "test drive" version is available
version 3.5
price - varies with number of nodes desired
published by - Mustang Software
Post Office Box 2264
Bakersfield, CA 93303-2264
support BBS - (805) 395-0650
sales hotline - (800) 999-9619
A D V E R T I S M E N T S
Advertisements cost $15 dollars for a each issue (3
months). If you are interested in placing an
advertisement, please contact me through the US Mail or my
BBS system.
CHANNEL ONE BBS SYSTEM
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Carrier Detect - Issue 6 - page 33
