BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News COPYRIGHT 1989 August 1989 Volume 2, Issue 8 Table Of Contents ----------------- Article Title Author Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Idiot-In-Chief Editorial Column...............................Randy Hilliard About FidoNet..................................Howard Duck Atlas Technology RAM Expansion Card............Mark Maisel Insights.......................................Ron Albright Space Travel, Via Modem........................Barry Bowden Update: SAS 2.0................................Mark Maisel Pathminder.....................................Doug Reinsch Backup Those Files.............................Joe Kearley ProFile........................................Chris Mohney From The Kitchen...............................Chez Stephan News Bits......................................Barry Bowden Message Board..................................Barry Bowden Our Local Bulletin Board Systems...............Mark Maisel Known BBS Numbers..............................Mark Maisel ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer and Statement of Policy for BTN We at BTN try our best to assure the accuracy of articles and information in our publication. We assume no responsibility for damage due to errors, omissions, etc. The liability,if any for BTN, its editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or omissions, etc., shall be limited to the cost of a one year subscription to BTN, even if BTN, its editors or writers have been advised of the likelihood of such damages occurring. With the conclusion of that nasty business, we can get on with our policy for publication and reproduction of BTN articles. We publish monthly with a deadline of the fifteenth of the month prior to publication. If you wish to submit an article, you may do so at any time but bear in mind the deadline if you wish for your work to appear in a particular issue. It is not our purpose to slander or otherwise harm a person or reputation and we accept no responsibility for the content of the articles prepared by our writers. Our writers own their work and it is protected by copyright. We allow reprinting of articles from BTN with only a few restrictions. The author may object to a reprint, in which case he will specify in the content of his article. Otherwise, please feel free to reproduce any article from BTN as long as the source, BTN, is specified, and as long as the author's name and the article's original title are retained. If you use one of our articles, please forward a copy of your publication to: Mark Maisel Editor, BTN 221 Chestnut St. BHM, AL 35210-3219 We thank you for taking the time to read our offering and we hope that you like it. We also reserve the right to have a good time while doing all of this and not get too serious about it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W S F L A S H AFTER SEVERAL DELAYS, THE LONG AWAITED INDEX FOR BTN IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR CONSUMPTION AND USE! PLEASE TAKE TIME TO DOWNLOAD THIS VALUABLE RESOURCE AND USE IT AS A REFERENCE FOR EXTRACTING INFORMATION FROM BACK ISSUES OF BTN. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR PROVIDER OF THIS INDEX SO: T H A N K Y O U ! ! ! The filename for the first index of BTN is BTNNDX01.ZIP. It contains five files, an introduction, and four text files which contain the index sorted in four different ways. These are by author & title, title & author, issue & author, and subject & author. Please post your comments, thoughts, ideas, and criticisms of this new by-product of BTN so that we may better know how to provide the kind of publication and services that you want to read each month. Thank you, Mark Maisel, Idiot-In-Chief ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial Column by Randy Hilliard For those of you who have second sight (I.E. have to look twice to make sure) I'll take the time to point out the lack of 'Guest' in the title of this little memo of mine. It seems that I have been doing this little ditty long enough that Mark gave me a few powers of my own; the power to find another sucker... I mean volunteer. Once I have done so I can lapse back into my normally somnambulistic character whilst still enjoying the 15% pay raise Mark gave me last month. At any rate this issue of BTN rivals the last few issues. Its still as attractive as a two-headed dog, it still crawls on its belly like a reptile, its still FREE! It rivals the others in the fact that this is the largest issue since #8 (and that depends on how wordy I get right here!) Our first guest article this month is an article on FIDONET written by the Sysop of the Duck Pond - Mr. Howard T. Duck. For those of you (us) who wanted to know just what FIDONET was and is, this is a good primer. Our second guest article is the third in a series by Ron Albright on the benefits available on-line via the modem. Our third guest article is by Barry Bowden and covers a slightly different channel of information to those interested in Space; courtesy of NASA via a local BBS. Our forth guest article is by another local Sysop, Joe Kearley - The Joker's Castle - on the benefits garnered by regularly backing up your hard disk. Our fifth (and final) guest article is by Barry Bowden on two new (to us) users groups that are here in Birmingham. Did I mention that this was also a product reviews issue? Why, fer sure it is! We have a review of the Atlas Technology RAM Expansion Card by Mark Maisel, a update of the Swiss Army Shell, now version 2.0 by Mark Maisel, and a review of the PathMinder DOS shell by Doug Reinsch. And now a word from our sponsor: ...Rutabega! What a wonderful word. Let's see... Chez Stephan is back with some more kitchen wizardry; our ProFile this month is on Tyros; Barry Bowden has the Message Board for August; the Local BBS Spotlight this month is on LZ Birmingham; and all of this is followed by the Known BSS number list. If you think that you might be interested in writing either a regular article or a guest article for BTN and garner all of the accouterments and accolades that accompany such a position just leave Mark Maisel or myself a message stating your wishes on EzNet, The Crunchy Frog, or Channel 8250 (we hang out in some strange places) and we will be more than happy to accommodate you. Like I said; all I have to do is find ONE suc... err... volunteer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- About FidoNet Copyright 1989 by Howard Duck SysOp of The DUCK Pond [1:3602/42] @ (205) 822-0956 I want you to know it's not my fault. I squirmed and wriggled but to no avail... still, Mark got me. About a month ago (See how well I've procrastinated?), I got a request from Mark Maisel, illustrious editor of this journal, asking me to contribute an article or two about FidoNet. I really didn't think I had anything to say, but Mark thought differently. He said he wasn't all that familiar with FidoNet and believed that most of his readers probably weren't either. So here it is: everything you always wanted to know about FidoNet but couldn't find anyone to ask. I guess the place to begin is with the answer to the question, what is FidoNet? Well, it's an association of electronic mail systems running on personal computers. Now that is probably not what most of you who have some familiarity with FidoNet would have given as a definition. Most would have likely said it's an association of BBSes, and that is primarily true. Most of FidoNet is made up of public-access Bulletin Board Systems, but some FidoNet members are simply individuals with their own private message-sending systems. Being a public BBS system is not the purpose of FidoNet. FidoNet's purpose is to distribute electronic messages. The primary and almost the only requirement for joining FidoNet is to have a personal computer capable of sending and receiving electronic mail in a manner compatible with the FidoNet protocol, a protocol developed by Tom Jennings in 1984, and placed soon afterward into the public domain. The network gets its name from the original Fido BBS run by Tom in San Francisco. Supposedly the BBS was named after Tom's dog. The logo one saw when logging onto his Fido BBS was an ASCII sketch of a dog and a fire hydrant (no, not in the position some of the more vulgar-minded of you might be imagining). In most respects, Fido was like other BBSes you see today (many are copies of Tom's work) but with Fido, Tom introduced a means of connecting individual systems via ordinary voice-grade telephone lines. Tom, in San Francisco, wanted to keep in contact with another BBS operator in Baltimore and take advantage of those great low rates that were only available at odd hours of the morning. Thus he created a mail system that could link the two boards, and from just two BBSes in two U.S. cities in 1984 grew FidoNet, a network that now includes more than 5,000 systems in over 30 countries. (A partial list covering only North America is available for viewing on our BBS. It is called NODETEXT.BBS and takes up over 300K-bytes.) So, now, how does FidoNet work? In most cases, users access FidoNet through a local bulletin board. In most cases, although access to the BBS is free and open, access to the message areas of a FidoNet board require application and sometimes a fee. Actually, a fee is generally required only for a type of electronic message called NetMail or EMail, the kind of message service that started FidoNet. There is another kind of message service that fees are not generally charged for and that is called EchoMail. EchoMail areas are "shared message bases" while NetMail areas are something like post office boxes. EchoMail on one board appears on every other board willing to participate in that conference group, but a NetMail message entered on one board travels only to a particular destination board where the addressee is expected to pick his message up. Although the rules governing these two services vary from board to board, I'll try to explain the differences between them in terms of how they are implemented on my own board. On The DUCK Pond, Echo Mail is a free service open to all users of normal privilege level or above, that is to all users who have completed a simple questionnaire and agreed to abide by the rules of the BBS. A normal user can enter any of several Echo areas and read or post messages. Messages must be public in these areas and above all, must be on-topic. On our board there are over a dozen Echo areas. These include a "help" area for MS-DOS users, an area for computer game players, an area for comic book fans, an area for C programmers, and several areas for Amiga users. (We are primarily a board set up to support Amiga computer users. In fact, in my 'humble and unbiased' opinion, we are the best Amiga board in the state!) If you examine the messages in these areas you'll see they come from many places. The 'origin line' at the bottom of each message identifies the BBS on which the message was entered. Some are from as far away as Australia. Most are from other BBSes in the U.S. and Canada. The cost of sending and acquiring EchoMail is borne by the SysOp (me!). Each night my BBS automatically calls other BBSes and picks up these messages, adding them to those already on our BBS. In my case, I pick up about 600 new messages each night, and of course, I send out a few messages entered by some of our own users during the previous day. Messages entered in our BBS's echo areas can wind up on BBSes anywhere in the world, although it may take a few days for the message to make its way to the more distant BBSes. In the case of NetMail, the user requests permission to use the system's NetMail area, normally hidden from view of the average user. The NetMail user must front a fee of $20 to cover his or her usage of the BBS's message service. It typically costs 35 cents to send a NetMail message to any other BBS in the U.S. and each time the user enters a message, that amount is deducted from the original payment. The advantage a NetMail user has over an EchoMail user is that the message goes wherever the sender wants it to go and only there, plus the message is " private" rather than viewable by all the other users as in the Echo areas. Most importantly, perhaps, is that the message usually gets to its destination overnight. EchoMail can conceivably take a week to get to the more distant BBSes. Most NetMail is transferred between 3 and 4 a.m. C.S.T., so any message entered here in the evening will likely reach its targeted recipient by the time he or she wakes up the next morning. All the recipient needs to do is log on to his or her local FidoNet board and read the waiting mail. Not many use this feature of FidoNet, but there are a number of loyal users who find it much more efficient and enjoyable than the old fashioned methods of the U.S. Postal Service. Well, that's essentially it. (Mark, does that answer your questions?)I guess the best way to find out about FidoNet, though, is just to call your local FidoNet BBS and see for yourself. Our BBS, The DUCKPond at 822-0956, is open 23 hours each day. It is unavailable to human users during the 3-4 AM CST (4-5 AM daylight) national mail hour when North American (Zone 1) FidoNet boards exchange mail. First time users are asked to answer a questionnaire and after I approve the application are allowed to use the EchoMail areas. Additional application must be made to use the NetMail area. If you are a SysOp in the Birmingham area, and think you may wish to join FidoNet, just call me up and leave me a message in area one. I'll try to answer any questions you may have. If you are not yet a SysOp but are considering starting your own board, then you might be interested in taking a look at OPUS. It's the BBS software we are using and it's public domain like most of the Fido compatible software used in the net. Again, feel free to leave me a message if you have any questions about FidoNet or OPUS. I'll try to help. (G'bye Mark) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Atlas Technology RAM Expansion Card by Mark Maisel Do you ever become aggravated over never having enough room in memory to cram that network software, TSR, or other goodie that makes life so much easier? Here is one possible solution that works very well. It is not expanded, extended, or any other exotic form of memory expansion. This memory is DOS usable in every way for most applications. It is a card that gives you an extra 64K of memory for DOS to use however it pleases, with one exception which we will get to later. This extra 64K of memory comes on a less than half-sized card that is easily installed and requires no switching of any switches, flipping of dips, or any other annoying setup. All you need to do is add the driver that brings it to life in your CONFIG.SYS file. After that, get used to the luxury of having an extra 64K available. I have tried this card with all my text-oriented software and it works beautifully. It is very nice to be able to shell out of one application and still have a sizable chunk of RAM still available for something else. I use Norton Commander as a DOS shell and now it is very easy to keep it in RAM and run other applications without giving up too much memory. Before I started using this card in my system, I would have 560K available from DOS before loading any shell or TSR utilities. After installation, I have 640K free and this makes my work run much smoother. The benefits of this card easily are shown if you use network software, large data bases, documents, or spreadsheets. The only drawback of this card is that it will not allow EGA or VGA high resolution graphics software to work correctly. I tried to use some of my paint programs with the driver software both in and out of memory and it would not work. Removing the card is the only way to get your high resolution graphics software to work. I spoke with the designer of this card and he told me that this incompatibility is inevitable because EGA and VGA systems compete with the card for the first available memory above what DOS allocates for itself. The designer told me that the primary market for the card is the users who needs more room for network software and large data bases. For these users the graphics problem is generally not important. I heartily recommend this card to you if you are a network, data base, or spreadsheet user and are tired of running out of RAM just as you are building up steam. The space you gain really takes some stress away from you when you would otherwise have to worry about running out of room. The price, I just know you have been waiting for this, is only $149.95 and it is well worth it if it fits your need. The Atlas Technology Memory Enhancement System $149.95 for 64K-bytes of DOS usable RAM above the 640K-bytes limit Atlas Technology 3900 Montclair Road Birmingham, AL 35213 (205) 871-9555 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Insights by Ron Albright Copyright (C) 1989 Ron Albright As you have heard me say in previous installments, one of the most useful characteristics of personal computers is their ability to communicate with each other. It was one of the first functions developed in the earliest days of computer design. From the primitive days of the 'dumb terminals' (little more than a cathode- ray tube and a keyboard wired to a mainframe computer), the ability to exchange information from a central storage unit to remote locations has always been a useful function in varied applications. As the personal computers and their software matured, word- processing, databases, spreadsheets, and graphics supplanted inter-computer communications as the primary reason for buying and using PC's. Most surveys show that only 10-15 per cent of PC's are equipped with modems. Despite the plummeting prices of modems (the hardware needed for communications) and despite the proliferation of remote databases capable of providing information on virtually any subject imaginable, the 'communicating computer' remains an exceptional beast. With access to so many varied computer databases, information sources, and communication systems from your home computer, why have you not started using the telecommunication capability it has within it? I know why! The technology is just too complicated and vague. First, the books available on the subject already expect you to be strongly 'computer literate.' Most are written for the "hacker" - that rare breed who know everything about a computer down to every bit, byte and chip. They are just plain hard to understand or too lengthy to be digested. Secondly, the companies that provide information sources have done a poor job defining what you can do 'online.' Buzzwords like 'electronic mail,' and 'software downloading' are bantered about but no one has taken the time or the effort to explain what they mean and how they can be used to benefit your business or your personal lives. Let's remedy the second problem first, and then I'll tell you how to solve the first. To do the job of the information providers first, here are just some examples of what can be accomplished by using your computer to communicate: 1. Attend courses for college credit right from your home (TeleLearning Systems, Inc., 505 Beach St., San Francisco, CA 94133) 2. Save money by booking your next airfare and lodging through Easy-Sabre's Travel Service (Delphi). 3. Buy a VCR, a mink coat, or imported coffee (and more) on Compu-Store (Delphi, GEnie) or CompuServe's own Electronic Mall. 4. Find business opportunities and obtain capital worldwide on the Global Venture Network (Delphi) or the International Entrepreneurial Network (CompuServe). 5. Locate hard to find medical information on rare illnesses in the National Organization of Rare Diseases' database (CompuServe). 6. Send a Telex message to a business or friend around the world (CompuServe, Delphi). 7. Read and search through over 300 high-priced newsletters from every imaginable industry (NewsNet). 8. Read today's Wall Street Journal or search through any issues back several years for any story or topic you choose (DJNS). 9. Check Japan's KYODO news service for the latest news or quotes from the major Japanese markets and exchanges (DJNS, Delphi). 10. Hire a large research firm to search the world's electronic databases for any topic or company you wish (IOD on The Source; TII on Delphi). 11. Need to send a message to a foreign country that must be translated? Transmit the English prose from your computer to Delphi and have it translated to any of several languages and returned to you in less than a week (TII on Delphi). 12. Concerned enough about AIDS to get the latest information and ask questions of informed professionals? Then use the CAIN database (Delphi). 13. Get abstracts of the published reviews of software and hardware before your next purchase on MicroSearch (CompuServe). 14. Check book reviews from Salem Press, Inc., before you buy any technical or professional books. (DJNS) 15. Decide which video to rent this weekend from reviews of thousands of movies dating back to 1926 on CineMan (DJNS). 16. Help choose you or your child's college from comparative data provided on more than 3000 2- or 4-year colleges and universities from Peterson's Guides (DJNS). 17. Find about the intricacies of running a business from home from the experts and those who are already doing it successfully (The "Work-At-Home" Special Interest Group on CompuServe; HOSB SIG on GEnie). 18. Enroll in a professionally-designed Stop Smoking program and be coached and counselled online from home (CompuServe). 19. Set up a series of words or terms related to your business and have the NewsGrid editors of COMTEX search 7 news services each day for stories related to your specific interests (GEnie). 20. If you're looking for a stock with a dividend yield of 5 per cent or more or a low p/e of 10 or less, let the Vestor stock database make suggestions and offer detailed reports for your investments (GEnie). 21. Starting a new business or planning to relocate? Have the SuperSite database provide concise demographics and forecasts for any area of the country along with sales potential estimates (CompuServe). 22. If you don't want to miss a single press release from anyone involved in your industry, check in regularly on the Business Wire. The Wire provides the full-text of press releases announcing new products, legal action, financial information, and personnel actions (CompuServe or //RELEASE on DJNS). 23. Before you invest your money, check out the real financial health of your planned stock buys. On Value Line you can find quarterly and annual reports of 2700 major U.S. companies listed on the NYSE, American Stock Exchange and the over-the-counter market. Professional evaluations and forecasts are also available (CompuServe). 24. For those who need to keep up with the business literature but cannot afford to subscribe to all the magazines, check Management Contents and search for just the areas that interest you - from accounting to marketing to management. Over 100 business journals and newsletters are abstracted and can be searched by keywords and as far back as two years (The Source). 25. BIZDATE provides an electronic newsletter that is revised 55 times every business day. Information is drawn from government announcements, UPI, U.S. News Washington Letter, the Commodity News Services, and other sources to produce reports on wide range of financial and business topics (The Source). 26. Trying to find anything at all - and I mean anything? Check in on Western Union's InfoMaster and have access to over 800 electronic databases covering every subject imaginable. Searches are simple and menu-driven so you don't need to be a "info-guru" to effectively use the system (Western Union Infomaster, 1 Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458; (800) 247-1373). 27. Maintain an electronic portfolio with Quick & Reilly (120 Wall Street, NY, NY 10005) on CompuServe or Spear Securities (626 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90017) on The Source and buy and sell stocks on a 24-hour basis (execution, of course, during normal business hours). 28. Read the full-text of the weekly newsletter "Futures Focus," dealing with the futures market, industry news, and trading tips (Delphi). 29. Interested in incorporating your business? Check the "Incorporating Guide" (Corporate Agents, 4305 Lancaster Pike, Wilmington, DE 19899; (800) 441-9975) and find descriptions and analysis of 7 types of corporations and the requirements for each of the 50 states (based on government reports and state law) (CompuServe). 30. Did Bill Cosby really earn a Doctorate and, if so, what was his thesis? Check Marquis' Who's Who (Knowledge Index). He did, by the way and his thesis was on how the "Fat Albert" character can be used to teach children social values. When you consider that you can answer questions related to your business and studies, can communicate and leave messages to associates and friends across the country (not to mention the fact that you will make new friends online!), and can gather new software programs across the phone lines to be run right on your system - among dozens of other applications - there is no reason to remain on the fringes of computer-based communications! It time to wake up to these capabilities and start applying them to productively to, virtually, every facet of your daily lives. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Space Travel, via Modem by Barry Bowden While cruising thru the interstellar lines one morning I found an interesting conference on Wells American BBS (known around these parsecs as American BBS) titled NASA Conference. Being a curious fellow I docked up and found an amazing amount of information. It seems NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has set up a BBS to keep the public abreast of current news on its space program and is run out of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The system was put online in February 1988 and has 14 megabytes of main memory, 708 megabytes of disk storage and can communicate with eight callers simultaneously at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud. The system was initially set up for teachers who wanted help if arranging classroom activities that included information and/or scientific principles relating to the space program. The NASA Conference on American BBS allows users to view bulletins on the past weeks daily news releases, shuttle status, a weekly status on Magellan and even a Space Shuttle manifest. The conference has a wealth of information and should satisfy any space nuts out there. Randy started the conference because he had a hard time finding news on what was going on and decided to do something about it. After several months of talking with the public relations people Randy set up the NASA Conference about the first of June and all of of his users love it. Even the president of the Birmingham Astronomical Society calls regularly to answer any questions and keeps everyone up to date with upcoming events. So, if you are interested in space, give the American BBS a call and enjoy ... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Update: SAS 2.0 by Mark Maisel Since our review of SAS, Swiss Army Shell, the author, Steve Lee, has made many improvements and enhancements to his product. Many of the changes are the results of suggestions offered here and by other users. We felt it appropriate to let you know about the new release of this fine DOS shell. Among the features included in version 2.0 are mouse control in lieu of the keyboard, support of both ZIP and ARC formats, and a much more flexible installation procedure. There is also an option that has SAS offer your favorite 10 pieces of software in a menu for execution from within SAS. There is a price to be exacted for these features. RAM requirements have grown quite a bit. If you have 640K-bytes or more of RAM, then this should not be too much of a problem. When you tell SAS which applications it may call for you, you can tell SAS to remove itself from RAM or remain depending upon your needs. PAKView, the ARC & ZIP viewer program that works with SAS, does not support the mouse or allow viewing of files within an ARC or ZIP. The author says that he has some code that will handle the viewing directly and will support the mouse in the next major release. Good shareware, such as SAS, is hard to find. The author has indicated an interest in re-writing an object oriented SAS using the new Turbo Pascal 5.5 but has been dismayed at the lack of support thus far. SAS is deserving of support by users who find it to fit their need and such support certainly will inspire the author to work on his product. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Pathminder - Westlake Data's OTHER Product By Douglas A. Reinsch Some people just won't take no for an answer. When I told Mark that there was no way he could get me to write another BTN article, he produced some rather interesting photographs the subject of which doesn't look anything like me. However, on the outside chance that he has more believable shots, I felt it expedient to write another piece. If you're like me, then you don't exactly look forward to reading reviews of software unless you are actually shopping for that particular type of software. With that in mind I'm going to try to give you the flavor of a package that I dearly love hopefully without boring you to death (Well for some of you it might be a good thing if you get "something-ed" to death, but we won't go into that here since it could be argued that I am included in that number). From the early days of my computer experience I searched in vain for the perfect shell (For the sake of discussion we will define a shell as any software which acts as a user interface, buffering the user from working directly with DOS). Being a cheapskate, anything that hit the public domain was a primary target, and for a long time the best user configurable shell I could find was Automenu. While it didn't give a very flexible shell, it did allow the user to set up fairly complex menus to automate everyday functions (in COLOR too!). Automenu is still a very good product and is quite useful in certain applications, but the natural conclusion of this choice is that I still did many things from DOS by hand. Automenu is very tedious without a hard drive (which at the time I did not have), and just wasn't flexible enough as the exclusive interface to DOS. Upon entering my current job a couple of years ago I was introduced to a product called Pathminder by Westlake Data Corporation. Some of you may recognize Westlake Data as the manufacturer of PC Fullback, a popular utility for backing up hard drives. I have this theory about software user friendliness; if I can pick up the software, without reading the documentation, load it into my computer, run it and manage to explore most of its features without getting bogged down, then the software is satisfactorily user friendly. Pathminder passes this test with flying colors. In fact, probably the best selling point that Pathminder ever had for me is the fact that you don't HAVE to do anything in Pathminder. At any time you can hit "C" (for Compose Command) and type in an old faithful DOS command. For the most part, if you can run it from DOS then you can run it from within Pathminder (even Microsoft Windows!). In Pathminder the screen is broken into three sections. Across the top is a command line. Filling the left side of the screen is a window showing a file listing of the current drive, and the right side of the screen has a window which can be configured to show: a help screen, a status screen or a tree view of the current drive. Any of these last three can be brought up with a single keystroke at any time, but normally it is helpful to leave it in status screen mode. The status screen displays a number of useful dynamic stats. At the top it shows the current time and date for those of you who have trouble with time- space relationships. Below that is a window which shows the drive letter and the volume label along with the number of bytes total, used and free on the current drive. Below this window is another that shows the total, used and free bytes of main memory. One drawback to this memory status is that it does not display extended or expanded memory. Lastly, the bottom window shows who the current user is, for use in a system usage log. This last is not useful at all unless you have multiple people using the same machine, AND you actually care how much each one of them uses it. If so, then the system log will track who is using the computer and every program they run. Just in passing, Westlake sells a version of Pathminder that can be password protected and that provides some system management functions. My personal opinion is that Pathminder does not make a good choice from a security view however. Like Norton's Utilities, Pathminder can be very useful and powerful, but if you mess up then God help you to recover (and His consulting fee is usually pretty high). The file listing to the left in Pathminder is deceivingly simple and powerful. A highlight bar is positioned at the center of the screen. The up and down arrows move the displayed directory so that you can position any file or subdirectory name under the bar. From this point you may execute a highlighted file by pressing Enter. EXE, COM and BAT files execute directly, and believe it or not Pathminder will automatically load Basic to execute a Basic program as well. Pressing Enter with any other type of file will earn you a warning message that only EXE, COM, BAT and BAS files are executable. If you are highlighting a subdirectory name, then you can press Insert to "open" the directory. That directory's files will then be shown under the directory name with proper indentation to differentiate from the main directory files. To "close" the directory back to just a name again, you can press Delete. It is appropriate here to move on to the command line, because the earlier program executions were not really that simple. As I said, using the up and down arrows moves your position in the displayed directory, but the left and right arrows move a highlighter from one command to the next on the command line. The default position of this command pointer is the "RUN" command. You could just as easily move the command highlighter over to "EDIT" and hit return. At this point Pathminder will attempt to open the current file in its internal editor. The editor is nothing to write home about, but it is a decent, full screen, quick-and-dirty editor (Come to think of it, if you change the first two to indecent and full figured, that sounds a lot like the BTN editor doesn't it). As an aside, you could also have hit the "E" key while highlighting the desired file, and the editor would have kicked in as well. Two more of the command line entries are "FILE" and "DIRECTORY". Selecting one of these commands will take you to a sub-menu which will allow you to find, copy, type, rename, move, erase, kill, encrypt, decrypt or change the attributes of a file and open, close, sort, create, erase or rename a subdirectory. Explanation is in order for some of these. First, Pathminder will move files from one directory to another but only on the same drive. Move is also nondestructive, meaning if you try to move a file on top of another file with the same name, Pathminder will beep and refuse to move the file. Kill is different from erase in that it completely overwrites the marked file(s) contents so that even all of Norton's horses and men could not put it together again. This brings me to another point which has been unmentioned till now. When you select any file command which you might logically want to perform on multiple files (such as a move or erase), Pathminder will prompt you to "Mark" each file by hitting the space bar. After marking the desired files, Pathminder will prompt once more to make certain you know what you're requesting, then it executes. At any time within Pathminder you can hit Escape to back out of or halt the current operation. Hitting Escape several times will get you out of anything, back to the main command menu. The ATTRIBUTES command will allow you to write protect or hide files and visa versa. Hidden files do not display on the screen as would be expected. Files can be TYPED to the screen or to a printer, and all page formats can be preset through another menu option. The SORT command under DIRECTORY will allow you to display directories sorted by name, extension, Date/Time, Size or without any sort. The next major entry on the command line is OPTION. This command will allow you to modify virtually any parameter in Pathminder including the default right window view, the screen colors, whether the editor is full or half screen and whether Pathminder should treat you as a novice user (prompting after every command for verification) or as an expert (letting you do whatever you like no matter how ill-advised that is). This is also where all printer options can be adjusted, since Pathminder supports full page layout features. From under OPTION you may also change the disk drive which you are currently viewing. The last entry under OPTION allows you to create a user defined menu. This menu is accessible from the main menu by the command APPLICATION. You can make submenus several levels deep, but each menu cannot be greater than ten entries long due to space constraints. To execute a menu entry you may move the highlight bar as before or type the first capital letter in the menu entry's name. For clarity then, each menu entry should have a different leading capital letter, but the capital letter need not be the first letter in the name. Hence, "Procomm" and "pRintshop" are both valid menu entries that will not conflict in execution. From the OPTIONs menu you must tell Pathminder a name, a directory, a file specification and any parameters which must follow on the command line. You may also enter a description line which will display when the entry is highlighted. Parameters include variables allowing you to place information that will only be known at execution time into the command line. For instance, one variable inserts the currently highlighted filename. Another will prompt you for input with a customized prompt at execution. Within these constraints just about any program can be added to your customized Pathminder menu to be executed with two or three keystrokes. If you do not have a particular program in your menus, then you can use the COMPOSE command from the main menu. Pressing "C" will bring up a blank line letting you type any valid DOS command sequence. Hitting Enter will then execute the command in DOS. COMPOSE remembers the last composed command entered and will allow you to edit without having to retype a whole command line after a simple syntax error. Overall, Pathminder is a very powerful and friendly user interface. Its few failings are easily forgotten once you grow accustomed to the user definable menus, since all of your favorite programs are as accessible as you make them to be. This review has not described all of the power to be found in Pathminder, but if you have survived reading this far, then you have a very good idea of what Pathminder can do. The most negative thing I can say is that since Pathminder has become more popular over the past year, they raised the price from $35 to $45. Pathminder is worth every penny though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Backup Those Files by Joe Kearley How many times have you been working on a project or just writing an article, when all of a sudden......ZAP!!!! There goes all or your work into the land of WOBEGONE. It can be very frustrating to say the least. From personal experience with running a board, I know how important making backups can be. If I had not had a "sorta" recent backup of the board when I had a disk crash recently, I would have been in a very sorry predicament. Remember when the BIG thunderstorm came through about a month ago? I have a few very tall trees around my house and one of them had the top of it torn off by the wind and tossed on my neighbors power lines. Needless to say, the lines came down which caused a very large short circuit that sent a huge power surge through my house. Guess what?? The computer got zapped. When I got home from work and discovered what had happened, I feared the worst. I discovered that the power supply had bit the dust. Well I could not find out what else might have happened until I replaced it. It took me about a week to get another one installed and when I finally powered up I discovered the hard drive had been corrupted. I had no choice but to reformat. If I had not had the backups I would have had to start over from scratch with the board. So from personal experience, I can say.....no matter how much of a pain in the rear making backups are, if you don't do them, you are risking MUCH HEARTACHE. The method I am using is making a full backup once a week with incremental backups of files that change once a day. This seems to be the best all around solution for my use. I hope this little article might open a few eyes to the importance of making backups and will save someone from the land of WOEBEGONE. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ProFile by Chris Mohney ProFile is a short, half-serious biographical sketch given to various computer telecommunications personalities around Birmingham. Victims are selected randomly from a group of names put into the notorious Hat. Anyone who thinks himself brave or witty enough may petition for admittance to the Hat by leaving E-Mail to me (Chris Mohney, most boards around town) to that effect. Anyone who wishes to suggest more questions or sneakily nominate someone without their knowledge may take the same route.... --------- Pro File on SCOTT HOLLIFIELD --------- Age: 19 Birthplace: (officially on record as) Birmingham, AL Occupation: Candidate, U.S. Senate My hobbies include: Reading, listening, talking, gathering intelligence Years Telecomputing: About 6 Sysop, Past/Present/Future of: Hopefully, future sysop of the Doppler Effect, the world's first liquid-oxygen powered BBS (coming in 1990) My oddest habit: Calling people Kenneth and asking them what the frequency is My greatest unfulfilled ambition: Complete adjustment and assimilation into this strange planet you call Earth The single accomplishment of which I am most proud: The establishment of what is apparently a well-known BBS presence My favorite performers are: Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, the Smithereens, Squeeze, U2 The last good movie I saw was: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade The last good book I read was: VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, by Bob Woodward If they were making a movie of my life, I'd like to see my part played by: Either David Byrne or Matt Frewer My pet peeves are: Intolerance, narrow-mindedness, unwillingness to face the future, and ear-scratching. When nobody's looking, I like to: Radio headquarters with my latest report. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From The Kitchen by Chez Stephan Hello again and how have you been? Summer is a time when we lose a little of those extra pounds we have if for no other reason than the fact that we are finally a little more active than those winter months. So let's see what we can do to rectify that situation. Were gonna start with scallops in a cream sauce: Start by making a medium cream sauce. This is easy: to make 1 cup of basic cream sauce (white sauce) melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over low heat. When melted add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Blend together. Add to this mixture 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of half and half. When this starts to thicken add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard, 1 tablespoon of tarragon, 3/4 tablespoon of sweet basil and a couple of good dashes of red pepper as well as a dash of white pepper. Saute 1 pound of scallops in 2 tablespoons of butter. When they are done add, to sauce and mix well. Keep the sauce stirred during preparation. This mixture can be used many ways. You can serve it over rice or spaghetti. You can place it in a small baking dish and cover the top with a mild white cheese and bake until cheese is slightly browned. Or you can get real fancy and place in individual baking dishes cover with a thin pastry crust and bake until golden brown. One aside here is that if you will brush the tops of the pastry with butter when it starts to brown you will add a more even and richer color to the pastry. You can also substitute a number of other seafoods in this recipe. Try lump crab meat that has been well picked. Try broiled tomatoes with the above dish: Wash the number of desired tomatoes. Turn upside down an cut about 1/16 of the tomato off. Place tomato in a baking dish cut side up. Place 1 tablespoon of butter on top of tomato. sprinkle tomato with salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, and top off with some Romano or Parmigiana cheese. Place tomatoes about 4 to 5 inches from the broiler element and broil until cheese browns. Remove from oven and serve hot. Snow pudding for dessert: 3/4 cup of sugar 1 envelope unflavored gelatin 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla flavoring 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (actually zest are better) 1/4 cup of lemon juice (use the store bought if you have to) 2 egg whites In a saucepan, combine sugar, gelatin and salt; add 1/2 cup of cold water. Stir over low heat till dissolved. Remove from heat; add 3/4 cup of cold water, lemon peel and juice. Chill until partially set. Turn into a large bowl; add egg whites. Beat with electric mixer till mixture begins to hold its shape. Chill in eight parfait glasses. Can be served with either a custard sauce or sprinkled with coconut flakes. I would really like to hear from you folks as to the recipes themselves as well as any ideas you might have as to future articles. If you have any questions or comments then leave Mark mail in the BTN conference on the Crunchy Frog or The Bus. Thanks loads and I hope you enjoy. Ciao Chez Stephan ----------------------------------------------------------------------- News Bits by Barry Bowden I have stumbled across two 'new' user groups in Birmingham for everyone to enjoy. They are the CAD Users of Birmingham (CADUB) and the First Osborne (hope that's spelled right) Users Group (FAOUG). The CAD Users of Birmingham has been meeting for about two and a half years and has focused its attention on AutoCAD, its uses and shortcuts. Bobby Benson, president of the group, said that there are about 25 companies represented in their membership and they try to help each other out since for them, time is money. Bobby also stated the group has a newsletter and library for its members dealing strictly with AutoCAD. If you are interested in attending one of their meetings call Bobby Benson at 791-0426 (home) or 995-0190 (work). They meet on the third Tuesday of the month between 6:30 and 8:30 P.M. First Alabama Osborne Users Group is certainly no newcomer to the user group scene. The group was established over six years ago in response to the lack of information on Osborne CP\M machines by its users AND dealers. Over the years, the FAOUG members have migrated over to MS-DOS and some MAC computers, but the group itself is mostly Osborne oriented. The library has over 300 disks available to its members as well as a monthly newsletter. FAOUG meets on the first Saturday of the month at 1:00 P.M. For more information please contact Ed Purquez at 669-5200 (home). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE BOARD by Barry Bowden AUGUST 1989 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 30 August 5 BIPUG August 5 FAOUG August 8 CCS (C64/C128) August 13 BCCC August 14 BACE August 15 CADUB August 18 BEPCUG August 21 CCS (Amiga) August 22 CCS (C64/C128) August 27 BCCC BEPCUG CCS Birmingham East PC Users Group Commodore Club South Jefferson Sate Jr. College Springville Road Library Ruby Carson Hall, Rm 114 2nd & 4th Tuesday (C64/C128) 3rd Friday, 7-9 PM 3rd Monday (Amiga) Paula Ballard 251-6058 (after 5PM) 7:30-10 PM Maurice Lovelady 684-6843 BCCC BIPUG Birmingham Commodore Computer Club Birmingham IBM-PC Users Group POB 59564 UAB Nutrition Science Blg Birmingham, Al 35259 RM 535/541 UAB School of Education, Rm 153 1st Sunday (delayed one week 2nd and 4th Sundays, 2 PM if meeting is a holiday) Rusty Hargett 854-5172 Marty Schulman 967-5883 BACE FAOUG Birmingham Atari Computer First Alabama Osborne Users Enthusiast Group Vestavia Library, downstairs Homewood Library 2nd Monday, 7 PM 1st Saturday, 1PM Benny Brown 822-5059 Ed Purquez 669-5200 CADUB CAD Users of Birmingham Homewood Library 3rd Tuesday, 6:30PM-8:30PM Bobby Benson 791-0426 If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed, please let me know by sending E-Mail to me thru EzNet or on The Bus System BBS. Please leave the group name and a contact person/phone number. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Local Bulletin Board Systems Number Six In A Series by Mark Maisel Name: LZ Birmingham Sysop: Loren Levson Software: PCBoard 14.0 /D Been Around: 1.3 years Baud Rates: 300-2400 Bulletins: Veteran Support, Veteran Locator Database, Agencies & Groups That Support Veteran Affairs, Shareware Software Listing, Reunions Of Different Veteran Organizations, Poem Of The Month (Vietnam Related) Purpose Of The Board, PC Board Short Cuts, Grizzard's Comments On Jane Fonda, System Statistics, 12 Steps To Recovery From Substance Abuse Conferences: Medical Marvels (ask questions), Supporters Conference (folks who are interested in veterans issues), Vietnam Vets Only (private), Garage Sale (classified ads), Alcoholics Anonymous (coming in August) Computers Supported: IBM & compatible computers Files Available: IBM & compatibles and a large assortment of text files Doors Available: Add-A-Vet (add veterans to the database), Find-A-Vet (search the database), Top Gun Trivia, ProDoor Special Information: Our goals are to provide Vietnam Vets a way to find each other and a forum for them to express themselves. We provide easier access to medical information. We also want to keep people aware of POWS and MIAS and that some are still alive and in prison. Q. Why did you start your BBS? A. I enjoy helping people and I believe that the services provided by the system work toward that goal. Q. What has been your greatest reward from running your BBS? A. There have been two. The first time that I put two buddies together, one of them had been wounded and sent home, and the other never knew if his buddy had lived or died. I was informed of all this by letter. The second was when I had a Vietnam vet call from Texas and I came in on chat. I typed "Welcome Home Brother" and he hesitated for a long time while I continued to ask where he went. His carrier did not drop and after a while, he came back and said, "I am sorry but I am wiping tears from my eyes. In twenty years, no one has ever said welcome home." Q. What are your greatest regrets and annoyance associated with running a BBS? A. People stating a point, having it misread, and feelings being hurt is a great regret. When people sign on and place junk into the database is annoying. Fortunately this can easily be remedied as the last line of the database file tells me who made the entry. Q. What are your future plans for the BBS? A. Increasing the number of names in the database and making the service and database better known. Q. What is the funniest thing that has happened on your BBS? A. A user that I was conversing with mentioned that he worked in a funeral home. Two months before we had the conversation, I had met him while burying a Vietnam vet friend of mine. I was the escort of the widow and arranged for the funeral and other arrangements. I was tickled by the fact that this guy turned out to be one of my users. Q. What is your favorite hobby/pastime outside of your BBS and computers in general? A. Flying radio controlled airplanes. I enjoy motorcycle riding and I love more than anything else in the world to snow-ski. Q. What do you think your system offers that might cause someone to prefer your board over others? A. Veteran issues, veteran attention, services. In general, I hope that the users find a sysop that is open minded. I don't have the answers for myself so how can I purport to have the answers for others. Q. Why? A. I appeal mainly to a certain segment of the population and once they have the opportunity to call and learn their way around, they tend to come back again. The veterans and their supporters are made to feel very much at home on the LZ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES SUPPORTED MODEM TYPE America Online Nodes 1-4 323-2016 300, 1200, 2400 America Online Node 5 251-2344 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST *American BBS 674-1851 300, 1200, 2400 *Byte Me 979-2983 1200, 2400 *Bus System BBS 595-1627 300, 1200, 2400 *Channel 8250 744-8546 300, 1200, 2400 Club Phoenix 942-0252 300, 1200, 2400 *Crunchy Frog 956-1755 300, 1200, 2400 D3 Systems BBS 663-2759 300, 1200, 2400 Duck Pond BBS 822-0956 300, 1200, 2400 Elite Fleet 853-1257 300, 1200 Gateway BBS 854-5131 300, 1200, 2400 Gizmo's Atari BBS 854-0698 300, 1200 I.S.A. BBS 995-6590 300, 1200, 2400 Jim's Place 787-5512 300, 1200, 2400 *Joker's Castle 744-6120 300, 1200, 2400 LZ Birmingham 870-7770 300, 1200, 2400 *Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST ProSoft Systems BBS 853-8718 300, 1200, 2400 Radio Free TROAD 592-2545 300, 1200, 2400 *Role Player's Paradise 631-7654 300, 1200, 2400 Smitty's BBS 849-7349 300, 1200 Sperry BBS 853-6144 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 Hayes *ST BBS 836-9311 300, 1200, 2400 *The Connection Node 1 854-9074 1200, 2400 *The Connection Node 2 854-2308 1200, 2400 *The Outer Limits 969-3262 1200, 2400, 9600 HST The Islands BBS 870-7776 300, 1200 *The Professional's Board 856-0679 300, 1200, 2400 Twilight Zone 856-3783 300, 1200 Ultra-Vision BBS 856-1593 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's DYM Node 1 979-1629 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's DYM Node 2 979-7739 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's RBBS 979-7743 300, 1200, 2400 Ziggy Unaxess 991-5696 300, 1200 Boards with a "*" before their name are members of our local network, EzNet, and public messages left in the EzNet Conferences of any of these boards will be echoed to all members.