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ZIP Magazine Volume 3 Issue 4
Ú-----------------------------------------------------------¿
| É------------------» |
| ±±±±±±±±± Editors: | Volume 3 Issue 4 | |
| ±± Ron Alcorn | July 1990 | |
| ±± W.H. Lambdin È------------------¼ |
| ±± |
| ±±± Here's A Peek At What's Inside! |
| ±± ------------------------------- |
| ±± |
| ±± þ NEWS 5 |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| þ PLIGHT'S & PERILS (AGAIN!) 6 |
| ±±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± þ RS-232 12 |
| ±± |
| ±± þ EXCITING NEWS FOR DBASE 14 |
| ±± |
| ±± þ STRIKE BACK 21 |
| ±± |
| ±± þ PC TOOLS DELUXE 6 30 |
| ±±±±±±±±±± |
| |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± ±± |
| ±± ±± |
| ±± ±± |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± |
| ±± Ú¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ -Â- ¿  Ú-¿ |
| ±± | | Ã-´ | ¿ Ã-´ / | |À¿| Ã- |
| ±± Á Á Á Á À-Ù Á Á À-Ù -Á- Á ÀÁ À-Ù |
| ----------------------------------- |
| "For Home MS-DOS users" |
| |
| /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ |
| \ "Be sure to read every section in this issue" / |
| / We hope you enjoy this small issue. Thank you! \ |
| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ |
| ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Up coming reviews... |
| |
| We'll see what the new Intelec ZIP Magazine conference |
| members have in store for us. Also possibly we'll |
| review the Hayes Ultra and maybe a couple of 386's. |
| |
| É-------------------------------------------------------» |
| | ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ A T T E N T I O N ® ® ® ® ® ® ® | |
| Ç-------------------------------------------------------¶ |
| | ZIP BBS supports the HST/V.32 standard at 9600 baud! | |
| | Call (606) 878-9500 from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M. [EST] | |
| | SnapShot Express supports the V.42/V.32 standard at | |
| | 9600! Call in at (606) 843-9032 24 hours a day. | |
| È-------------------------------------------------------¼ |
À-----------------------------------------------------------Ù
É-----------------------------------------------------------»
| |
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| |
| VOLUME 3 ISSUE 4 |
| |
Ì-----------------------------------------------------------¹
| |
| EDITOR'S CORNER ................................. page 3 |
| FEEDBACK ........................................ page 4 |
| NEWS ............................................ page 5 |
| PLIGHT'S AND PERILS OF UPGRADING (AGAIN!) ....... page 6 |
| IDE UPDATE ...................................... page 8 |
| TOM'S TIDBITS ................................... page 9 |
| RS-232 .......................................... page 12 |
| EXCITING NEWS IN THE WORLD OF THE DBASE LANGUAGE page 14 |
| STRIKE BACK ..................................... page 21 |
| PROGRAMMERS CHALLENGE ........................... page 30 |
| PC TOOLS DELUXE 6 ............................... page 30 |
| QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ........................... page 42 |
| BBS LISTING ..................................... page 44 |
| USERS GROUPS .................................... page 47 |
| ZIP INFO ........................................ page 48 |
| |
È-----------------------------------------------------------¼
þþ EDITORS CORNER þþ
Hello again. Here at ZIP Magazine, thing's have been very
hectic of late. A lot of different thing's are going on.
1. I am waiting for my 386 to arrive. SnapShot Express BBS
is down until I can get the 386. The problem is from my
200 meg hard drive not being compatible with my old 12
MHZ 286. I have written an article about my
mis-adventures. (Plight's and peril's of upgrading
(AGAIN!)). Check it out.
2. There is a new ZIP Magazine Conference on the Intelec
network. If you you have a comment, or a question, drop
either Ron Alcorn or myself a note in the ZIP-Mag
conference. If your local sysop carries some
conference's on the Intelec Network, Ask him to pick up
this conference. On the Intelec Host BBS, it is
conference #58. If your local sysop doesn't have message
conference's, tell him about this conference. Both Ron
and I will try to get on-line at least once a week.
3. We have received quite a few distribution point form's,
and we can't accept all of them as distribution points,
or we will have to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy because
of the phone bill's. We have two BBS's so far that is
capable of doing file requests. The Intelec Host BBS, can
send the new issue's of ZIP to BBS's along with their
mail packet's. The Chicken Coop (Look for the number in
the BBS list) can do the same thing on Fido-net. Sysop's
that are on Fido-net, or Intelec. Do not send a
distribution point form. The cost of uploading ZIP to 50+
BBS's is getting out of hand.
Anyone interested in helping us bring ZIP Magazine to you, You
may send donation's to the address below. We need your help
W.H. Lambdin
P.O. Box 328
East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729
þþ FEEDBACK þþ
That's a great magazine you have going there! I look forward
to the next issue as I'm sure the users of Intelec are as
well. Cliff Watkins (Intelec Host)
ZIP Magazine is the best magazine going! Henry, J. Spencer
Thank you for writing that article on how to convert the
Thompson Ultra scan monitor to a VGA Monitor. I made the
cable that Ron Alcorn described in the -3-3 issue. That
article saved me over $300. Now I don't have to buy a VGA
monitor for my Paradise VGA card. Robert L. Anderson
EDITORS NOTE: Glad you were able to use that article for your
benefit. I will pass your note on to Ron Alcorn.
I have been reading ZIP for the last few month's. I didn't
think it was possible to get something this good for free!!
Robert A. Lawrence
The information below was an answer to the slow sector
problem that I described in a previous issue of ZIP Magazine.
It was cut from the ZIP Magazine conference and pasted in
this issue in case someone may find it useful. W.H. Lambdin
-------------------------------------------------------------
In Norton Utilities, you can use the FAT table editor to
manually lock out clusters overriding DOS and the BIOS
entirely. Make sure that you update the changes in *BOTH*
copies of the FAT table, or else you will get some errors.
David Christensen.
-------------------------------------------------------------
þþ NEWS þþ
ZIP Magazine now has a conference on the Intelec Network!
Please call Cliff Watkins' BBS listed in the POINTS.TXT file
for more information!
USRobotics now has a ROM upgrade for the Dual Standard modem.
The V.42bis compression is now used. You can connect at 2400
V.42 with the Hayes V-Series or Ultra modem. You CAN'T
connect with the V-Series modem at 9600 baud! The V.42bis
compression is used at 9600 or higher baud when calling
another Dual Standard modem. V.42bis compression is much
more efficient that MNP level 5 with data that has already
been compressed.
Hayes has released their new Ultra modem. This new modem
supports both V.32 and V.42. Also the modem now supports
locked baud rates up 38,400 baud. The modem will
automatically detect the type of modem calling in. W.H.
Lambdin should have the new modem within two weeks.
Ron Balewski's C column will not appear in this issue of ZIP
Magazine. The BBS Mr. Balewski uploaded the column to, moved
to texas, and Ron didn't have any way to get the column to
us. Look for "Sailing the C's to appear in the ZIP-3-5 issue.
þþ PLIGHT'S AND PERIL'S OF UPGRADING (AGAIN!) þþ
by W.H. Lambdin
When I wrote those two article's about the peril's of
upgrading, I thought I would be safe for a while.
This time I needed some room for my BBS (SnapShot Express
(SSE) from here on.) I started looking at different types of
hard drives by different manufacturer's. I finally decided on
the CP 3204. I am listing pertinent data below.
Manufacturer-----Conner Peripheral's
drive size-------200 meg
Required bay-----3.5
Format-----------IDE
Cylinder's-------1366
Head's-----------8
Sector's per tr--38
access time------19 MS
Transfer speed---1.2 meg's per second
Before I go any further, let me say this up front. This drive
is the nicest drive I have ever seen. If you plan to buy a
drive of this type. MAKE SURE YOUR BIOS WILL ALLOW YOU TO
ENTER THE NUMBER OF CYLINDER'S, HEAD'S, SECTOR'S, AND WRITE
PRECOMP IN YOUR CMOS CONFIGURATION.
My old 12 MHZ 286 is about 3 year's old, and I didn't have a
clue there would be trouble getting the drive to work. First
I scanned all 46 drive types in my CMOS. There was not one
drive type resembling the data above. First we tried the
closest match in the CMOS. This gave us 68 meg, but we
couldn't get the drive to boot.
We called D.C Drives and explained that we needed to run Disk
Manager to configure the drive. I have had my share of
trouble with Disk Manager in the past, but I think it is a
result of the non-standard motherboard I am using.
We tried Disk Manager, and again lightening struck. The disk
was bad. I called D.C. Drives again, and asked them to send
another copy of Disk Manager. I also asked them to give me
the telephone number to Conner Peripheral's
I called Conner peripheral's and asked to speak to a
technician. I explained the problems, and he said I would
have to buy another BIOS that will manually let you enter the
number of track's, number of head's, number of sector's per
track, and lastly the write precomp.
I started shopping for a new 286 BIOS. I finally found a
company advertising the new AMI BIOS. The sales person was
courteous, but was unable to help me with my technical
questions. I received my chip's in two day's. I thought my
problems were over, but the chip's were bad. I was beginning
to wish that I had never seen a computer.
I then tried the chip's on 4 other IBM type computer's that I
have access to. The chip's would not work with any of them.
When a computer had these chip's all it would do is beep 9
times; pause for one second; then the cycle would repeat
until you turned off the computer.
I called Upgrade's ETC, and explained this newest problem.
The sales person gave me the number for American Megatrend's
Inc. (AMI) I asked to speak to a technician for help. The
technician wanted to hear the beep's when the computer tried
to boot. After he heard the endless loop the computer was in,
He said "I can almost guarantee the chip's are bad." I sent
the chip's back to Upgrade's ETC the next day
My brother (Jim Lambdin) offered to loan me his 386 SX to run
the BBS on. For three day's SnapShot Express was flying. 14
to 20 call's per day. with 15 upload's in three day's. At the
end of the third day. Jim's 386 SX died. This time; there was
no way to transfer my BBS back to my 65 meg drive.
I knew that most people would never call back if the phone
kept ringing. I tried to use the host mode in Telemate 2.1. I
had no success with this. Unfortunately, I let Telemate
remember all the BBS number's and password's for me. I called
the ZIP BBS. (The only telephone number, and password I could
remember.) He didn't have the complete WWIV package, so I
placed a call to (Christine Blount (Sysop of the GCB BBS)) I
explained my difficulty, and she was kind enough to download
WWIV for me, then upload it to the ZIP BBS. Around midnite, I
had SnapShot Express running.
Now I am shopping for a 25 MHZ 386 with 4 meg's I want to be
able to multi-task the BBS. I don't want to put any more
money in the limited architecture of the 286.
My Brother recommended that I get a 386 SX. If I get a 386, I
want the full blown 386 chip. I want to multi-task a BBS, and
have enough power left over to manage at least two other
applications. I would like to see an SX do that. Most people
don't know this. I didn't believe it myself till I ran
Norton's SI.
The 386 SX is able to run 386 software, and multi-task.
However, the SX isn't as fast as a 286 running the same speed
By now, you may think that I hate the drive. Well I don't.
The drive is a gem. It is so quiet that you can't hear it for
the fan on the power supply. It is a FAST!! drive. It is
faster than MFM, RLL, or SCSI interfaces. I have found no
reason for the incredible speed. Only ESDI drives are
consistently faster than the IDE interface.
expect IDE drives to take a larger piece of the market share.
I have already seen computers come with the IDE interface
installed on the motherboard. This is possible because 90 to
95 % of the IDE controller is on the circuit board under the
drive. All the IDE need's to be operational is a relatively
new BIOS, and a set of pin's to connect the cable to.
Special thank's goes out to Christine Blount for helping me
get my BBS with an emergency message up. For this act of
kindness, ZIP Magazine will be sending her a free 1 year
subscription to ZIP Magazine on diskette.
þþ IDE UPDATE þþ
by W.H. Lambdin
If you plan to buy an IDE drive in the near future. DO NOT
LOW-LEVEL FORMAT THE DRIVE! IDE drive's are low-level
formatted at the factory. I have heard rumors of people
using Debug, or other hard drive prep program's and
destroying the drive.
I heard of one person low-level formatting three IDE drive's
and had to send them back to the manufacturer.
When a person install's an IDE drive, you only need to run
Fdisk (from DOS) to set up the partitions, then format all
partitions. That's all there is to it.
There are some very interesting thing's about IDE drive's. I
have already explained about them being very quiet, and very
fast (In the article above) THere is some other fact's you
may be interested in.
1. I ran PC-Tools <DISKFIX> program on my CP3204.
There was not one bad sector, nor was there one
slow sector on the 200 meg drive.
2. IDE drives are very small. My CP3204 is small
enough to fit in a packet. This is no joke. The
actual size is the length, and width of a 3.5
floppy drive. But this 3204 is the heighth of a
5.25 floppy (about 2 inches high)
3. IDE drive's do not get hot like MFM, and RLL hard
drive's. When I took it out of Jim's SX, (after
running constantly for three day's it was barely
warm to my hand. My 65 meg RLL drive will get so
hot that I can't touch it. After it has run for 2
hours.
4. My CP3204 is rated for 100,000 hour's MTBF (Mean
Time Between Failure's) Most hard drive's are rated
for 30,000 MTBF. Seagate is one company rated for
30,000 hours.
In my opinion IDE drive's are the best drive's made today,
and they have stats's to proove it!
I just wish I hadn't had so much trouble getting it to talk
to my 286.
I finally got my 386 computer, and this drive is running at
an astounding rate. This Conner 3204 is reading 1451.3 K per
second (according to Core Test Version 29.) I thought I was
flying when my old 65 meg drive was reading 800 K per second.
On my 386, I am running my bus speed at 12.5 HHZ. So far
there has not been any problems with the fast bus speed.
I set my bus speed back to 8 NHZ, and Core 29 reported that
this drive was reading 1229 K per second. Of course, I kicked
the bus speed back up to 12.5 MHZ to gain the additional 230K
per second.
þþ TOM'S TIDBITS þþ
by Tom Croley
Tom's Tidbits
Box 188
Battle Ground, WA, 98604
206-687-2343
-----------------------------
DISK DABBLING - THE PRO'S & CON'S
To Spinrite, or to spin wrong? That is the question.
You may not even know it, but right now, your hard disk may
not be operating at peak efficiency. Worse yet, it may be
fading away into oblivion. One fateful day, you may flip the
red switch only to read, "Error reading drive C: Abort,
Retry, Ignore." Time to panic. A call to the local hacker
shack informs you that the resident technispert sells his
services for no less than $75.00 per hour. What will you do?
If you have been browsing the magazine ads lately you may
have seen advertisements for two products that are increasing
in popularity by leaps and bounds. They are competitors in a
relatively new arena of hard disk tune up utilities. The two
products of which I speak are Spinrite by Gibson Research and
Optune by Gazelle Systems. Both are excellent pieces of
software. Their ads spell out a scenario similar to the one
above and urge you to rush out and buy their brand of
prevention. Here is what one dabbler (namely me) found out
about what they claim and what they can do. I will try to
keep it simple and spare you the gory details.
Here are their claims in a nutshell.
There are three ways to have a happier, healthier, hastier,
hard disk drive. You can optimize your interleave, optimize
your files, or buy a new disk drive.
1. Optimize your interleave - You probably didn't even know
you had one. The interleave is the pattern or sequence
in which chunks of usable space (called Sectors) are
laid out on your hard disk. Your disk spins so fast
that the computer cannot keep up with it. To compensate,
the sectors are spread out in a pattern, to minimize the
number of turns it takes to read a given amount of data.
This pattern is established when the disk is first
installed and "low level" formatted. Most people never
repeat this procedure. There is a "best" pattern for
each combination of drive & computer and this pattern can
only be determined by actual testing. What is worse, the
layout of your pattern can fade out over time so that
portions of your disk become unreadable. General wear
and tear can also cause problems. The answer is to use
"Optune" or "Spinrite" to analyze your interleave, tune
it, and refresh it. As you use the program, it tests
your interleave and determines the best pattern to use.
It then reformats your disk without erasing any data
while at the same time changing the pattern. Bad spots
in the disk surface can also be detected and set aside so
they will never cause problems.
2. Optimize your files - This has to do with the physical
arrangement of files on your disk. As you delete files
from your disk empty holes are left available for new
information. When you write a file to your disk, the file
is often scattered about filling these holes. There is no
real danger in this because the computer knows where it
puts all the parts of each file. This fragmentation does
slow the flow of information due to the fact that the
disk has to look around to find all the parts of a file.
Information will flow smoother and faster if the files
are laid out in one piece. A "disk optimizer program"
takes all your files, tosses them up in the air, and
makes them come down altogether in neat little sorted
rows. Since the disk drive no longer has to hunt all
around for a requested file, it seems to operate faster.
3. Buy a new disk - You could purchase and bigger and better
disk drive when you start having troubles. But in a
matter of time, it two would need some of the above.
Well, what does all this mean? Does it really work? Is it
really important? Here is what I found out.
I doubt if we will ever fully understand. Yes it works. May
be it is important.
If that does not sound like much let me fill you in on some
details.
I started out with "Spinrite". I wanted to give it a good
test so I took a disk drive that completely died and would no
longer even boot. One over night dose of "Spinrite" and
believe me, that disk, a Seagate ST-225, was humming as good
as new. The rate of flow of data increased 150%, surface
errors were detected and corrected and not one ounce of data
was lost. I was thrilled. I was also confident because I
knew that "Spinrite" had tested every byte of that disk with
gobs of tricky data. I quickly tried another disk. POW! An
increase of over 300%. I was impressed. The program is
super easy to use, reasonably priced, and does a great job.
Next, I discovered "Optune". Optune does all that Spinrite
does plus it offers a file optimizer. I found the file
optimizer to be the fastest that I have ever seen. I tested
"Optune" on a disk that was very noisy and slow. I reset the
interleave to gain maximum performance and then zapped all
the files through the optimizer. The disk immediately ran
smoother and very quiet. Optune offers more options than
Spinrite but is a little more difficult to use. Both
programs are so easy that this is not a big worry. Optune
costs less but Spinrite seems to be more thorough in what it
does than the corresponding functions of Optune.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
I heartily recommend both of these programs and give them a
***** five star rating. I recommend them for all computer
users who value their equipment and their data. However I
issue the following cautions:
1. BACK UP YOUR DISK DRIVE before dabbling around. You
could have a disaster if you do not. Be faithful to do
this even if you have gained confidence in your program.
Major goofs happen when you least expect them.
2. IT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. I wanted to "low level format" my
70 megabyte miniscribe hard disk. It has 1170 cylinders
and uses a device driver to operate beyond the dos limit
of 1024. Optune totally erased the entire disk and said
that everything was fine. Spinrite choked on the disk
and after 20 minutes of waiting for the menu to come up I
shut it off with no harm done.
Disk drives come in all shapes and sizes today. MFM, RLL,
IDE, ESDI, SCSI, who knows what it all means anymore. Don't
assume that since "Spinrite" worked for your best friend's
Seagate ST-225 it will work for your Seagate ST-1239 IDE. You
may be sorry.
3. Don't be over eager to fix something that is not really
in need of repair. Especially if you don't have the
slightest inkling what it is all about. Read the
instructions and take your time.
þþ RS-232 þþ
by
Ron Alcorn
Below are some various charts on how to make several
different types of serial port cables and the names of each
the pin leads.
"25 PIN TO 25 PIN NULL MODEM CABLE"
1 ------------------ 1
2 ================== 3
3 ------------------ 2
4 ================== 5
5 ------------------ 4
6 ================== 20
7 ------------------ 7
20 ================== 6
"25 PIN TO 25 PIN NULL MODEM CABLE"
'Another Variation"
1 ------------------ 1
2 ================== 3
3 ------------------ 2
4 ================== 5
5 ------------------ 4
6 ================== 20
7 ------------------ 7
8 ================== 20
20 ------------------ 8
20 ================== 6
Notice that pins 8, 6, and 20 are merged together.
"25 PIN DEFINITIONS"
1 Protective (Chassis) Ground
2 Transmit Data TX
3 Receive Data RX
4 Request To Send RTS
5 Clear To Send CTS
6 Data Set Ready DSR
7 Signal Ground GND or SG
8 Carrier Detect DCD
20 Data Terminal Ready DTR
22 Ring Indicator RI
"9 PIN TO 25 PIN CONNECTOR OR VICE VERSA"
1 ------------------ 8
2 ================== 3
3 ------------------ 2
4 ================== 20
5 ------------------ 7
6 ================== 6
7 ------------------ 4
8 ================== 5
9 ------------------ 22
"9 PIN DEFINITIONS"
1 Carrier Detect DCD
2 Receive Data RX
3 Transmit Data TX
4 Data Terminal Ready DTR
5 Signal Ground GND or SG
6 Data Set Ready DSR
7 Request To Send RTS
8 Clear To Send CTS
9 Ring Indicator RI
"9 PIN TO 9 PIN NULL MODEM CABLE"
2 ------------------ 3
3 ================== 2
5 ------------------ 5
4 ================== 6
6 ------------------ 4
7 ================== 8
8 ------------------ 7
I hope you find this information valuable and correct. I
make mistakes, so please let me know if I made any above.
Numbers can get very confusing!
þþ EXCITING NEWS IN THE WORLD OF THE DBASE LANGUAGE!!! þþ
By Roger L. Waer
Associate Editor
I'm going to cheat in this column! The majority of this
column is actually a press release that I have simply
included. I also cheated a little with the title - this news
may or may not be exciting to you, but it is to me.
I'm primarily a Dbase programmer and I use many dialects of
the Dbase standard. I have always had a fondness for
Wordtech Systems Inc. and their Quicksilver compiler, so it
was frustrating to me to watch Clipper and FoxBase capture
the market with their speed. Quicksilver to me is a richer
and more powerful set of the Dbase standard language and I
have used it to write many applications (Including my own
Home Library System which was reviewed in an earlier issue of
ZIP).
About a week ago I logged on to the Wordtech support BBS and
found the following press release. I sincerely hope that
Wordtech delivers on the promise that is shown in the words
that follow. And if they do deliver the goods I further hope
that they recapture the market share that I think they
deserve. With that, read on........
WORDTECH SYSTEMS INC PRESS RELEASE
The long awaited day is here. Wordtech is at PC Expo in New
York today, announcing the next generation in dBASE
architecture!
Many thanks to all of our customers who have waited
patiently as we have kept an agonizing silence to avoid the
vaporware problems we've witnessed in the marketplace.
Today's announcement will still give you, our customer, an
adequate planning horizon - the new products will ship in
November.
We are delighted to be able to finally divulge the details...
Wordtech Announces World's Fastest Database Software
June 19, 1990, New York, NY -- Wordtech Systems, Inc. today
announced its next generation of dBASE compatible products
that will bring unsurpassed speed and power to database
management. Arago dBXL version 2.0, an interactive database
management system, and Arago Quicksilver version 2.0, an .EXE
compiler, will provide an alternative for DBMS users who need
full dBASE IV compatibility in a reliable product at an
affordable price.
The New Standard: The Arago family will offer full
compatibility with Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV, including full
file, index and syntax support, dBASE III Plus command
superset and memo field compatibility. Additional
enhancements include: * Full featured CUA compliant windowing
for multiple databases * Desktop publishing interfaces *
Multi-dimensional arrays * User Defined Functions * EMS
support * An on-screen tutor line and a fix option * A driver
module that will provide access to a variety of database
servers
Due to ship in November, 1990, the Arago family is expected
to become the new industry standard in speed and performance.
Along with Arago as the dBASE IV alternative, Wordtech will
continue to ship its current dBXL and Quicksilver version
1.3R as the dBASE III Plus alternative.
Unsurpassed Speed: "The speed of the Arago product line has
been our primary focus," said David Miller, president of
wordtech, "and the result is a superior platform that lets
users meet the demands of today's fast-paced business
environment. Arago Quicksilver and Arago dBXL combine the
latest in database management technology with speed that
outperforms the competition."
According to Miller, initial benchmarks performed at Wordtech
with standard industry suites show that the Arago products
are about three times as fast as FoxPro and about ten times
faster than dBASE IV.
CUA Compliance: The new products have a sophisticated CUA
compliant development environment for applications, and
provides full mouse support. Michael Gardner, Wordtech's
vice president of R&D said, "The CUA compliant interface is
very easy to use and provides users with all of the benefits
of IBM's SAA specifications. Equally important, we've given
the dBASE language a complete set of programming commands
that allows programmers to create their own CUA compliant
applications using push-buttons, dialogue boxes, entry and
choice fields, and other attributes. When designing user
interfaces, this can translate into savings of hundreds or
even thousands of lines of code."
Enhanced Productivity: Gardner added that the CUA commands
are just one example of many productivity benefits that have
been added to the Arago products. "Arago Quicksilver and
Arago dBXL have over 300 new commands and functions. Our
tests show that dBASE programmers can be up to five times
more productive using the Arago environment than when using
competing dBASE environments."
Arago Quicksilver is compiled in "C" and is compatible with
all major "C" compilers. Arago Quicksilver compiles dBASE
language programs into independently executable (.EXE) files
for speed and easy software distribution without runtime or
licensing fees. Arago Quicksilver also includes an overlay
linker and other programmer productivity tools such as an
automatic runtime environment configuration and a Clipper
compatible Extor and Extend "C" interface. Third party add
on products can be easily integrated into compiled Arago
applications.
Arago dBXL is a comprehensive DBMS environment that allows
users to work interactively to create and maintain
databases, to write programs, and to run their applications.
Arago dBXL includes an internal compiler, a debugger and an
applications generator/screen painter. To date, Wordtech is
still the only company providing users with both an
interactive system and an .EXE compiler for a complete,
integrated development environment.
Additional Enhancements: Arago dBXL includes the market
proven R&R Relational Report Writer. This top-of-the-line
report writer gives users unmatched flexibility in creating
complete database reports. The Wordtech R&R Report Writer is
also included with the current dBXL Diamond version 1.3R,
giving existing dBXL users immediate access to the band-
oriented reports that will be available with Arago dBXL.
Arago Quicksilver and Arago dBXL include a fully cross-
referenced online help system that follows the Wordtech
tradition of excellence in user support. The Arago product
line also offers larger system capacities than competitive
products, making it easier to create complex applications.
International Support: According to Surinder Brar, vice
president, international, "The Arago family supports all of
the international commands available in the dBASE language,
and after shipment of the English version in November,
Wordtech will be releasing versions in selected foreign
languages."
Wordtech presently provides dBXL in ten different languages
including Kanji, French, German, and Italian.
Arago Quicksilver version 2.0 retails for $695, with no
additional runtime or licensing fees for compiled
applications. Arago dBXL version 2.0 retails for $495.
Upgrades to the new Arago dBXL from the current dBXL version
1.3R will cost $49. Since dBXL version 1.3R currently
retails for $249, this is nearly a $200 savings over buying
Arago dBXL directly. Upgrades to Arago Quicksilver 2.0 from
the present Quicksilver version 1.3R will cost $69.
For additional information on Wordtech's new family of Arago
products, please call (415) 254-0900.
*************************************************************
FOR WORDTECH BBS USERS.. Introducing The Arago Product Family
The Arago release of Quicksilver and dBXL is: * Extremely
fast - alpha results show that Arago is up to ten times
faster than dBASE IV, and up to three times as fast as
FoxPro. * dBASE IV compatible, including all dBASE IV
commands. Also compatible with dBASE III Plus and dBASE IV
.NDX files. * An integrated environment for application
development, testing, and production - it includes both an
interactive database management system (Arago dBXL) and an
.EXE compiler (Arago Quicksilver). * CUA compliant, with
commands for creating CUA compliant dBASE applications with
dialogue boxes, push-buttons, and other CUA objects.
An In-Depth Look
Speed: Arago employs a variety of advanced performance
optimization techniques: * Sophisticated source analysis for
superfast looping * Hyper-granular memory management, for
extremely efficient memory utilization * Precisely balanced
BIOS/memory operations on all reads and writes * Intelligent
indexing to process only necessary records * Advanced Dynamic
Object Paging Link-Edited Runtime (DOPLER) memory management,
reducing memory overhead and tremendously speeding overlay
access * Memory caching for database operations * Extensive
use of EMS for optimal buffering
dBASE Compatibility: Arago provides full file, index, and
syntax compatibility with dBASE IV and dBASE III Plus. For
example, Arago can access both dBASE III Plus and dBASE IV
memo fields, and preserves their format by closing them in
the form in which it found them. Programs written under
dBASE IV and dBASE III Plus can be run directly by the Arago
products without modifications.
Integrated Product Family: Arago provides a compatible
interactive database management system with an applications
compiler. This is the ideal combination for development and
software distribution without runtime or licensing fees.
Wordtech is the only dBASE language vendor providing such a
complete solution.
Object Action CUA Compliant User Interface: Common User
Access (CUA) compliant interfaces allow users to move easily
from one CUA compliant application to another with little or
no retraining. IBM has defined CUA as part of its System
Application Architecture (SAA). Arago implements a CUA
compliant user interface. This involves features such as
dialogue boxes and radio buttons. The CUA compliant
interface is greatly enhanced by the user of a mouse, and
Arago provides full mouse support. However, a mouse is not
required, and all functionality can be delivered from the
keyboard.
CUA Compliant User Interface Commands: Arago has all the
basic primitive capabilities that allow dBASE programmers to
build CUA compliant dBASE applications. To summarize, dBASE
commands allow programmers to control panels, dialogue boxes,
and other objects in CUA compliant fashion. Corporations
will be able to use Arago to build CUA compliant (and hence,
SAA compliant) applications.
CUA compliance is a fundamentally more productive way for
programmers to design and implement user interfaces in dBASE
applications. Thus, CUA compliance has benefits beyond SAA.
The evolution of user interface design for the dBASE
language has progressed as follows:
Stage I: (dBASE II, dBASE III, dBASE III Plus) Management of
the user interface at the most atomic level, line by line.
Programmer can design larger user interface "objects" such as
windows or menus, but only through much tedious hand coding.
Stage II: (Quicksilver/dBXL (primitive), dBASE IV, FoxPro
1.0) Management of the user interface at the next level up,
with commands that control objects themselves. High level
commands let programmer easily control windows, menus, pop-
up pick-lists, etc. However, programmers must still hand-
code everything to tie all these objects together into a
coherent screen, and this can take dozens to hundreds of
lines of code.
Stage III: (Arago) Management of the user interface in terms
of entire screens. Arago's CUA compliant commands let the
programmer, with just a few commands, tie together all
smaller user-interface objects, and easily control their
interaction, saving significant lines of code.
*************************************************************
On a final note, these remaining details are designed to
address more fully the common concerns of our existing
customers.
* The Arago release results in a much simplified Quicksilver
cycle; no need to compile to decode then use Quicksilver
separately. Programmers can produce .OBJ files either
straight from dBASE source code, or from object code of Arago
dBXL's internal compiler.
* Arago Quicksilver fully supports BROWSE, EDIT, CHANGE, and
other interactive commands.
* Error messages and error numbers between Arago Quicksilver
and Arago dBXL are the same.
* Both Arago products support dates back to 4713 B.C.
* Arago Quicksilver supports macro-substitution of commas.
* Arago Quicksilver at native code (actually, that's all
there will be, there will be no intermediate stage except
Arago dBXL) makes overlays automatically so programmer
doesn't have to.
* Arago Quicksilver supports both Extor and Extend of
Clipper, for exchanging information with linked C routines.
* The debugger is significantly improved. There will be
other major productivity tools included as well.
* 50-line mode (VGA) and 43-line mode (EGA) are fully
supported.
* Both Arago Quicksilver and Arago dBXL allow 1K command
lines.
* The Arago dBXL editor has such amenities as word wrap.
* Memo field handling is improved spectacularly. Memos may
be used anywhere strings are allowed (e.g. SUBSTR(), AT(),
etc.). Either or both dBASE IV or dBASE III Plus memo files
may be used. Arago Quicksilver's memo editor is the same as
Arago dBXL's MODIFY COMMAND editor.
* Both procedures and functions may be declared in the same
file they're called from.
* Arago Quicksilver and Arago dBXL can pass up to 256
parameters to a UDF. Arrays may be passed as parameters.
* EMS support is significantly improved (up to 8MB and
astounding performance benefits) but is still used primarily
for databases and indexes.
* 26 work areas.
* Mouse support is complete and automatic.
* Still reasonably priced. Upgrade to Arago dBXL for $49
from dBXL version 1.3R. Upgrade to Arago Quicksilver for $69
from Quicksilver version 1.3R.
*************************************************************
What you've really been waiting for... ** S P E E D **
Preliminary
Arago Quicksilver and Arago dBXL
Benchmarks
Arago dBASE IV FoxPro
Arrays 00:33 01:40 00:47
COPY TO 00:07 00:14 00:10
IF/ENDIF 00:17 00:50 00:22
INDEX 00:07 00:23 00:07
Functions 01:52 08:52 02:37
Macro expansion 00:30 07:06 02:13
PACK 00:03 00:10 00:08
Procedures 00:36 03:01 00:36
Program loops 02:06 07:52 03:08
REPLACE 00:01 00:03 00:01
SEEK 01:33 54:18 03:45
SKIP 00:03 00:10 00:03
SORT 00:02 00:08 00:04
Variables 00:15 01:00 00:25
All times in minutes and seconds. Tests conducted with 2MB
EMS available. Benchmarks based on alpha version of Arago.
Arago times subject to performance tuning. Verified
benchmarks will be available during formal beta test.
*************************************************************
P.S. Since reading the above I have found the reason that
Wordtech chose the ARAGO name for their new product.
Francoise Arago was a French astronomer who contributed to
the work that led to determining the speed of light!
þþ STRIKE BACK þþ
INTRODUCTION
Have you seen the movie "Tucker"? It's about a man that
attempted to compete with "the big 3" by designing a better
automobile. He didn't run into trouble with the Japanese or
the Germans in terms of competition. His was closer to home
running into problems getting steel to build his car of the
future. Steel was only one of his problems, he was competing
with three different automakers.
This is a true article that's very similar. The product was
not as tangible as a car however, it was information.
Computerized catalog information for an industry that is
drowning in books and catalogs and cross references. The
other big difference is the number of competitors. Tucker had
three to deal with, this company had only one. One very
powerful monopoly that has controlled the information strings
for over 30 years. It maintains its monopoly not through
innovation, or servicing the industry with the better
mousetrap, but by eliminating its competition in other ways.
Lawsuits is one of the favorite tactics. Very long, frivolous
and expensive nuisance suits if necessary. This large
company, known as ASI, has for years had a death grip on the
industry. The industry? Specialty Advertising. If you're not
familiar with that term don't feel like the Lone Ranger, not
many people are familiar with it either. It's the people that
sell all that advertising stuff to companies to give away,
like pens and caps and calendars and t-shirts.
Most people shrug this industry off, thinking of it as just
another "cottage industry". It's not. As a matter of fact, it
generated over 5 BILLION dollars in sales last year alone
from an army of manufacturers [the suppliers] and an entire
country of sales agents [the distributors].
ASI sits on the fence between these two groups and sells
information back and forth over the fence. Not a bad way to
money actually, but over the years, ASI has determined that
they should not only hold the "keys to the industry" but that
it should also be an exclusive franchise owned and operated
only by ASI.
The only "allowed competitor" that exists today is a company
called Impact Advertising. Even Impact had to sue ASI for the
right to compete in the industry to the tune of $270,000 and
even Impact did not compete with ASI in the area of
information. They simply wanted a license to use a numbering
system that ASI had developed to identify suppliers and
distributors to reprint in mini-catalogs to sell.
This article was solicited from the author by Impact to be
printed in their quarterly magazine, "Inside Impact". The
author was shocked to find that Impact had printed the
article, but with the disclaimer that; "it was an unsolicited
and un-edited letter to the editor".
Obviously Impact was afraid of any repercussions from ASI
because of the information contained in the article. Peter
Klein is the president and CEO of Impact Advertising and not
the author of this text. SAAI is the national, non-profit
trade association that sponsors trade shows and is not
associated with ASI in any manner, shape or form.
Impact Article
--------------
The Empire Strikes Back
In the last issue, Peter Klein wrote an article ("The Trouble
With ASI") in which he pointed out that:
"...if anyone dared compete with ASI's monopoly, they [ASI]
would aggressively and sometimes ruthlessly drive the
competition from the market...expensive and protracted
litigation usually did the trick."
I know from direct, personal experience what Peter meant. A
few years ago I "dared compete with ASI's monopoly" in a fair
and open manner. I'll let you decide whether ASI responded
"ruthlessly," as Peter terms it, to the very same marketplace
realities all of us face every single day.
Background
Our industry thrives on healthy competition among suppliers,
but there is one drawback: most distributors have a problem
keeping up with the sheer bulk of printed matter that arrives
in the mail. Every day, suppliers send dozens of special
offers and, all too often, many are overlooked, mis-filed or
forgotten. An informational flood was developing and, day by
day, the situation wasn't getting any better. The more
suppliers spent to reach their market, the less chance they
had that a distributor would even see their mailing, much
less remember what it was all about.
In 1984 I had a better idea. It would be great, I thought,
if I could put this information into a computer; that way I
wouldn't have to spend all my time wading through filing
cabinets or thumbing through reference books. It would take
a large mainframe computer to handle all this data so, to
make this relatively simple concept more affordable, I
planned to make the data available to other distributors,
too. The object was to eliminate--or at least drastically
reduce--the amount of time all of us are wasting in front of
filing cabinets. Could this really work?
At the Winter Showcase in Dallas in 1985, I informally
canvassed other distributors to see if they would use this
kind of system, if it were available. The answers were a
resounding "Yes!"
I contacted a large computer company in town that specialized
in time-sharing on mainframe computers and began developing
the "Oasis Network." "Oasis" is an acronym for "Online
Advertising Specialty Information Services, Inc.," of which I
was the registered agent. We burned a lot of midnight oil
making sure Oasis would do the job right and, in early 1986,
we had a prototype ready to demonstrate at the Dallas show.
Conforming to all the SAAI rules of exhibiting non-member
companies, we managed to rent a booth with only 10 days to
spare. What we did not know at the time is that ASI had its
own prototype of a similar service that also was being
displayed at the show. ASI called their service
"Dialin"(tm).
The First Skirmish
I've been in this industry a few years. I had heard stories
of what happened to others who competed with ASI, so I made
darn sure from the very beginning that Oasis was
bullet-proof. I had more than one reason for doing so
because, as a distributor, I'm also a customer of ASI.
By the end of that show, we had 265 distributors who were
interested in at least trying the service as soon as it
became available. For our small, newly-organized company it
meant that all our hard work and planning just might have a
chance, even against a huge, powerful rival. For the rival,
it meant something quite different. The "death-star" went on
the alert and, just two short weeks later, fired its first
shot.
Oasis Network's application for associate membership in SAAI
(the same category as ASI) was still in process when, in
March, 1986, ASI's president, Marvin Spike, wrote a letter to
SAAI complaining about our "getting show space in a show
already growing topsy with [sic] healthy participation of
suppliers and distributors for which the show was originally
intended."
Substitute the word "competition" for "participation" in Mr.
Spike's complaint and you have the essence of the problem:
competition is okay for suppliers and distributors-- but not
for ASI, thank you.
Why worry about Oasis Network's membership in SAAI?
Obviously, a non-member would have a much harder time
acquiring the right mailing lists and it would be more
difficult for a non-member to gain access to its most
important prospective customers at national trade shows.
Was this an attempt by ASI to influence the outcome of our
membership application-- even before we were ready to offer
the service? I know what I thought at the time, but I'll
leave that up to the reader's own judgment.
We were accepted by SAAI as an associate member. We knew then
that if just one showing of a prototype, for a service not
yet available, was enough to cause this kind of reaction then
we'd probably struck ASI's Achilles heel. In any case, the
first shot of the death-star missed and it was apparent to us
that the owners of Dialin(tm) may have felt that their
service couldn't survive on its own merits.
ASI made it very clear that the fair fighting was over. Given
their way, the marketplace wouldn't have the opportunity to
decide which of the services best served its needs; that
should be decided in advance, by ASI.
Price Wars
When it made its debut, the Dialin(tm) service had a pricing
structure that sold units of time, not necessarily results:
the rate began at 25 cents per minute of connect- time, on
top of the (sometimes very) long distance phone call to ASI's
installation in Langhorne, PA. The distributor was charged
for every minute he spent navigating through the menus and
help screens, for all the time the computer spent searching
its data, and so on. Although it could lead to substantial
connect-time charges for any given search, this pricing
method is not unusual in the computer industry.
Oasis Network had its share of menus and "help screens" as
well but our service was substantially different in its
pricing. There were no connect-time charges on the Oasis
Network. Instead, distributors would be charged on a "per
transaction" basis: 20 cents for each successful search, no
matter how many qualifying products were found. The second
big difference was that, for 95% of the country, Oasis
Network could be reached with a local telephone call. The
computer firm we contracted with has two private national
data transmission networks. If you are located in Phoenix,
Arizona, and the mainframe is in Michigan, you would call a
local number in Phoenix which would connect you to the
network, and then to Oasis. Your phone charges stopped in
Phoenix.
Our pricing structure wasn't based on undercutting a
competitor; none had been announced at the time. Rather, it
came about this way because of my background. I am a
distributor--and I had a some pretty good instincts about
what distributors really wanted and needed. It was an
unusual pricing structure for the industry, and I thought it
would be unique to Oasis Network. I was wrong.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we were
promptly flattered. ASI added several features to imitate
ours as fast as they could. In Counselor magazine [published
by ASI] they announced that "Suggestions from distributors at
the show helped us to make several modifications which are
being completed now." One of those hastily-announced features
was "a national computer phone network that enables
distributors to quickly connect" to Dialin(tm). Distributors
(and suppliers) aren't naive, however. After years of
experience with ASI, they must have suspected a catch. Two
sentences later in the announcement explained it: "Instead, a
nominal phone time charge--lower than the average long
distance cost-- will be added to the DIALIN access rate which
was originally established at 10 to 25 cents per minute,
depending on total minutes used in a year." It was still not
as good a deal as ours--it was, after all, only an
imitation--but it showed that ASI was scrambling to plug the
holes that this newcomer to the industry, Oasis, had blown in
the sides of Dialin(tm).
It was time again to reload the death-star for firing.
Attack of the Letterhead
On April 4th, a letter from Marvin Spike, president of ASI,
was sent to my distributorship warning me that we are under
strict contract in connection with confidential, proprietary
and copyrighted ASI-database information. I expected it. What
I didn't expect was ASI placing claim to every word, or
portions of words, as part of an ASI trademark:
"We question the appropriateness of your using the name
"OASIS" in conjunction with the term "Network" to promote
that service...because the name obviously includes the
trademark letters "ASI" and the word "Network" which we began
using more than twenty years ago. Your use of those terms can
easily confuse our mutual customers."
I tried imagining the supplier or distributor who could look
at the name "Oasis Network" and read, instead, "oASIs
NETWORK" and be "easily" confused. I couldn't. I can only
accept Mr. Spike's words at face value, and assume that ASI
has a much lower opinion of suppliers and distributors than
anyone else in the industry.
The company logos were entirely different and even a
classroom of first graders couldn't be "easily confused".
One part of Mr. Spike's letter did address legitimate
concerns for their interests. ASI was concerned that my
distributorship would gather industry information and "rent,
loan, copy, transmit or otherwise divulge" their copyrighted
database information to Oasis. I assured ASI that they had
nothing to worry about on that score. From the beginning I
had intended to make the service "bullet-proof," so I was
very careful that all the data used by Oasis was gathered
through mailings from lists purchased from SAAI. I
maintained all the records and saved even the envelopes from
suppliers which were addressed to Oasis, not the
distributorship. During all the shows, we clearly stated that
the information on the Oasis system was gathered from SAAI
members, and it was our belief that those suppliers who are
members of the national association are expressing a deeper
commitment to the industry as a whole. All these efforts may
have impressed ASI about my fair conduct, but it didn't do
much for theirs.
The death-star fired again, with a reminder of the dark side
of the force.
The letter I received from Mr. Spike said, in part:
"We have no idea where your plans stand, but believe our
reminding you of these things can preclude time consuming and
costlyproblems for both of us later."
Many of my friends and associates feel that "time consuming
and costly problems" can be roughly translated as something
like "Now and before the Court in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania...." Again, you decide what it means, but I'll
guarantee you it wasn't an invitation to a barbecue on the
rolling lawns of Langhorne.
By this time I was boiling mad! Remember, Oasis did NOT yet
have its service available for anyone to use nor, at this
time, was Dialin(tm) commercially available. To add insult
to insult, a copy of this letter was sent to the computer
company I'd contracted with, no doubt to warn them not to be
in the general vicinity when the death-star inevitably fired
again.
Didn't ASI have anything better to do than meddle in our
business with the letter to SAAI and a copy of the second
letter to the computer company? I would have been much
happier if they had just minded their own business and worked
on improving their now wounded Dialin(tm). I didn't have time
for the unnecessary aggravation or harassment.
As a new member in good standing with SAAI, we promptly
signed up for the 1986 St. Louis Summer Showcase, where we
demonstrated Oasis actually connected to the data center in
Michigan. We also added to the output display an asterisk
indicating that the supplier of the product just searched was
in attendance. Our demonstration was very successful. At
one time or another our audience contained a number of ASI
top-management types, including Norman Cohn [CEO], Al Kernan
[VP of Marketing], Jerry Iwaski [Dir. of Finance], a data
processing manager whose name escapes me, and I believe
Darlene Wirth of ASI Computer Systems, Inc., (though she kept
a clipboard over her name badge).
For ASI, this was going too far. They didn't provide a
better service or a better price, according to distributors
who saw both demonstrated. They couldn't keep us out of the
association. They couldn't scare us away with veiled threats
of nuisance suits because we never violated any of their
copyrighted information. We never used an illegal mailing
list. In short, we played too fair.
In the fair market, Oasis was bullet-proof. ASI was out of
options, and the head-to-head competition could begin. Or so
we thought.
The Final Weapon
The death-star was brought out for one last shot that proved
fatal. A few weeks later I received an announcement from ASI
that Dialin(tm) was now FREE. The "national computer phone
network" (which, as far as I could tell, had never actually
existed) became an 800 number and all charges associated with
connect-time or multiple users had been eliminated, period.
Would you compete with "free"?
Cut-throat pricing is a very sore subject in this industry,
and I refused to play that game with ASI. I suspended all
operations at Oasis and explored my options. Was this simply
an "aggressive" marketing move on the part of ASI? Or was it
predatory pricing designed to "ruthlessly drive the
competition from the market" and protect their monopoly?
Again, you have to decide that for yourself.
I have no illusions about ASI's tactics. More importantly, I
didn't have the several hundred thousand dollars it would
have taken to file suit against ASI, and force a legal
opinion on the issue.
My efforts had succeeded, however, in ultimately forcing ASI
to price Dialin(tm) for what it was really worth to
distributors: nothing. ASI itself admitted the shortcomings
of its new service in the open letter announcing the "no-
cost" structure.
In that letter distributors were asked not to use the service
for all their research situations, just the ones that really
need it. This is entirely backwards. The distributor who
makes two sales a day has, after all, plenty of spare time to
rummage through files. It's the distributor who's getting
dozens of bid requests a day who needs every bit of computer
help he can lay his hands on. Unlike Dialin(tm), Oasis
Network was designed to be a useful, working tool for
distributors, not some sort of industrial video game, to be
used only occasionally.
Though Goliath stepped on David in this case, it wasn't
without a bite on the big toe. The problem is that the whole
industry loses, distributors and suppliers alike. Of course
if it doesn't affect our business directly, we tend to
overlook it, and we won't act on it because "it always
happens to someone else".
But it's happening to all of us now. Do you think of ASI as
another vendor or something more resembling a utility? I was
amazed at some of the responses of distributors when we
exhibited at the shows. Some distributors were mad at ASI's
system, and others were just plain mad at ASI. What
surprised me the most though, were the distributors that were
interested in our service but said things like: "If I use
your system, what will happen if ASI finds out?"
I returned the question, "What would you expect them to do?"
More often than not, the distributor was afraid that ASI
wouldn't sell them the books and directories as a punitive
measure.
This is not a vendor that provides a product, this is a
monopoly that collects a tax. A new tax may be coming soon on
the "free" Dialin(tm) service. At the time of the original
announcement I wondered just how long it would remain "free."
I was not surprised when ASI announced, just over a year
after the "free" announcement, that the "free access" 800
number had been discontinued.
The word "free" and "ASI" have never been easily confused. I
wouldn't be surprised if, in the future, the increase in
costs for ASI's basic Comprehensive Services included a flat
Dialin(tm) fee. Take a closer look at any one of the three
different authorization forms you may have signed for the
service--even those that say "DIALIN(tm) IS FREE" on the
front.
Dust off your copy or have ASI send you a copy for your
files. You'll find that section 5 of the fine print on the
back states that: "Subscription and access fees shall accrue
at ASI's THEN-EXISTING [emphasis added] published rates."
So if you have Dialin(tm) and are happy with it, I'm glad
that I had something to do with making it free, or semi-
free, or kinda free, maybe, for a while. When the
marketplace in our industry becomes free and open, you may
even get a choice.
************************************************************
{NOTE}
Since 1986 the FTC (federal trade commission) has been
contacted and sent information on this particular situation
for a determination. Were the actions of ASI simply a
"bundling of new services" or a method of unfair business
practices and predatory pricing to maintain a monopoly? As of
1990, the commission has passed this information through
three of its attorneys that have refused to rule on it by
simply pushing it off into the background. It seems that the
FTC only acts if the parties involved are huge corporations
or competition stems from outside the U.S. borders.
[Author's background]
Chip Staley is the president of Advertisers Publishing
Company, a distributor of specialty advertising products in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. He may be reached by writing to:
Advertisers Publishing Company, PO Box 7010 Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48107. Or by telephone (313) 665-6171
EDITOR'S NOTE: ZIP Magazine is not responsible for this
review in any part. Mr. Staley uploaded this article to
SnapShot Express BBS, and asked for it to be included in the
next issue of ZIP Magazine. All we did, was to block the
paragraph's to fit into the margin's we use. W.H. Lambdin
þþ PROGRAMMER'S CHALLENGE DEPARTMENT þþ
As an editor of this magazine, I will be challenging you,
programmer or user, to make or find a program that is better
than one(s) I will be discussing. Usually I will only be
discussing one or two programs per issue. Reason being is
that I'll only be picking what I consider to be top quality
programs that are the best in their category.
Also you, as a programmer, are welcome to send in a challenge
yourself. If you write a program that you think is better
than anyone else's, send it to us along with an article, not
a document, about your program showing off its features so
that we can place it here in this department for others to
know about. This may help you make some money if your
program is Shareware, news can travel around pretty fast on
BBS's. Along with reception of your program and article, you
will get a reply from me in this department, whether it be
compliments, comments, suggestions, or criticism. So don't
complain about what I might say, because you can clearly see
what all possible statements can be made toward your program.
Remember, if you send in a program and article, it would seem
that you are confident in what you do. Also all statements
are toward your program, not you. I would not want to offend
any person and start a argument. Don't let these statements
scare you off, I'm not a bad guy, I just try to give public a
general view. Everything I will be saying will be my
opinions only, unless I actually run tests to get true
statistics about your program.
Reader's please send in your responses to me. Let me know if
you think my choices are good or bad. It doesn't matter to me
if you agree or dis-agree with me because everyone has their
own opinion.
þþ PC TOOLS DELUXE 6 þþ
by
Ron Alcorn
Well the best keeps getting better! The latest PC Tools has
several upgrades and new additions of all sorts. If you know
nothing about PC Tools, please refer to volume 2 issue 2 and
volume 2 issue 5 of ZIP Magazine to learn all about it. So
many areas to cover, boy do I ever dread this! Time to get a
move on, so here I go!
The new package look may grab your attention. The color
scheme has been changed from the previous cyan, red, black,
yellow, and white manuals to black, red, gold, and white.
Sort of a dull, yet sophisticated look. So what's the big
fuss about this, nothing really. Just letting you know what
it looks like in case you are out in a computer store and
what to check it out yourself. Notice I said yourself, you
know how smart those clerks are. If you are lucky, the clerk
might say, "Oh, it's around here somewhere"! And when he
finds it, he gives you a description of the product that is
about 90 percent less informative than the ad's you see in
the popular computer magazines.
Not only has the package been updated, but so has everything
else. Completely new manuals, addendums, disks, and even an
extra. Now included are some labels to use on the disks that
you backup to using PC Backup. The manuals are still
average, not bad, but could be better. Also, they are still
paperback. I wish they would go to a ring bound binder. Much
easier to read and flip pages, and also simpler to add
addendums and other types of manual updates. Anyway, with
everything in the new package, you can now store it easily as
all of it is contained in a slick looking cardboard box. I
guess I could be real picky and say they should have used a
plastic box. Ha, ha...
Now lets spill the beans. I know you are more interested in
hearing about the program updates!
-------
DISKFIX
-------
Diskfix is a new program, it's first appearance. As you can
tell by the name of the program, it fixes disk. This program
is very comparable to Norton's Disk Doctor. It almost looks
identical.
When you load the program, it scans you computer's drive
setup, and then allows you to choose the floppy or hard drive
you want to check and/or repair. The program now goes to
work by performing several tests. It will check the
following items. I'll tell you what each item is, for those
of you that are not knowledgeable on this subject. I'm not
too bright about this subject myself, but I'll explain as
best as I can.
DOS Boot Sector
Contains some code needed to boot your machine, and
other DOS information to help access the file system.
Media Descriptors
Special byte in the FAT table that identifies the
current type of disk.
File Allocation Tables (Better know as FAT table)
This is sort of like the index for the drive. It
contains information about the files and their
location on the drive.
Directory Structure
This one is sort'a selfexplantory. It is the layout
of the directories and files on your drive.
Cross Linked Files
Files that have been given the same allocation, yet
the actual data for one or more of the files is in a
different area. This is what CHKDSK tells you some
times, and says you need to run CHKDSK /F to cure the
problem.
Lost Clusters
Data that gets stranded. The data is claimed to be in
use, yet it has no file or directory to belong to.
Media Surface
The actual physical media surface. This test will
find unreadable clusters and give you the option to
mark them bad, while trying to save the data to
another part of the surface so it will be safe.
That is all the tests that are performed on hard drives.
There is one other test, well not a test, but a disk
improvement for floppies. The revitalize option will
reformat a floppy disk, while preserving the data. If you
have problems reading a floppy disk, try this option and it
will probably make the disk more readable.
Diskfix seems to be reliable on my computers. I have heard
rumors though that Diskfix has had some problems. This does
not surprise me though, because this is Central Point's first
attempt at such a utility. There are so many different hard
and floppy drive setups out there, it's nearly impossible to
make one program work on them all. Although Diskfix is a
powerful tool, it is extremely easy to use. You don't even
need a manual to use this program.
--------
UNDELETE
--------
Undelete is very similar to Norton's Quick Unerase program.
Although similar, Undelete is much more flexible. Undelete
is almost identical to the undelete function inside of PC
Shell.
You can unerase files via two methods. First you can use the
DOS method. Second you can use the Mirror tracking method.
With the DOS method, which is not as good as the Mirror
tracking method, you lose the first letter of the file name.
The same goes for Norton's Quick Unerase. With the Mirror
tracking method, the first letter of the file name is
retained, meaning no more file name guessing. Have you ever
delete every file in a directory on accident? Remember how
hard it is to remember the name of every file? With PC Tools
this problem is no longer a problem.
Undelete does have one short coming. You cannot unerase
subdirectories. Although you can with the undelete function
inside of PC Shell. Never the less, Undelete is very simple
to use. It provides a few options, which are listed below.
/HELP - You know this one!
/? - Ditto
/LIST - Lists all the deleted files via the Mirror
tracking method. To list the undelete files
via the DOS method, complete this parameter
with the /DOS parameter.
/DT - Undeletes only the files via the Mirror
tracking method. This is the default method.
/DOS - Undeletes only the files via the DOS method.
/ALL - This will automatically undelete all files
without being prompted.
The command line format is:
UNDELETE d:\path\filespecs [parameter(s)]
Example
UNDELETE C:\DOS\*.BAK /LIST /DOS
Since Undelete is so simple to use, that's why this section
of the review is so simple.
----
PARK
----
This one will be short, but sweet!
Park allows you to park the hard disk drive heads. This is a
highly recommended if you decide to move your computer. All
you have to do is run the Park program, turn off your
computer, move it, and then turn it back on. This command is
also built right in to PC Shell.
---------------------
LAPLINK QUICK CONNECT
---------------------
For you laptop users, and side by side computer users, this
program makes transferring files directly from one computer
to another a breeze. Transferring files is not the only
thing you can do, you can also delete, move, and perform
other various file functions and maintenance. As with a
network system, you can not perform all functions. For
example, you can not copy or format a disk on the remote end.
Using this program can be rather tricky. Actually it takes a
total of three programs to link up and perform functions. To
setup the server (usually the laptop) machine, run LLS. Then
you install LLQC, a TSR, on the client (usually the desktop)
machine. Now run PC Shell and pull down the Special menu, and
turn on the LapLink Quick Connect toggle. The remote drives
will be added to the local machine. The new drives will
appear as network drives. The letters for the new drives
will be appended after the last drive letter of you current
drive configuration. For example, if you had floppy drives A
and B, and hard disk drives C, D, E, and F, and ram drives G
and H, the new drive letters would start at I, and continue
on down the alphabet.
Before you install and run any of the programs, you need to
connect a null modem cable from the local computer to the
remote computer. LapLink Quick connect supports COM1, COM2,
COM3, and COM4. I first tried COM4 to COM4, as this is
normally the way I transfer files between my two computers.
However, it said my cable was either not plugged in or
configured improperly. Bologna, I've been using this setup
for almost a year now with the ZIP Fast File Transfer
program, and I have not had one single problem. Next I
decided to try COM2 to COM1. This worked fine, although it
was a pain. I had to unplug my modem cable on one computer,
and the mouse cable on the other computer. I soon realized
that the support for COM3 and COM4 did not follow the clone
standard. The program will allow you to configure the
interrupt for the port, but it does not allow you to specify
the port address. I figure they probably use IBM's
non-standard addressing for COM3 and COM4. While this is
sort of OK, they should have just added the option to specify
the port address.
How do you use the programs? This is very easy to do. I'll
now explain the parameters of LLQC and LLS. Both programs
use the exact same parameter specifications except for the /U
parameter.
/? - Displays the help screen.
/U - Uninstalls LLQC only!
/B:nn - Specify the baud rate from 300 to 115,200
baud. Example: /B:115200
/C:n - Specify the com port from 1 to 4.
Example: /C:1
/I:n - Specify the port interrupt from 2 to 15.
Example: /I:4
Just how fast is LapLink Quick Connect? It's pretty fast,
but not as fast as the ZIP Fast File Transfer program written
by a guy with the name of E. Meyer. Here are are the results
of a 282,268 byte file.
ZIP - 29
LAPLINK QUICK CONNECT - 33
The tests were performed at 115,200 baud. The sending
computer is a 10 Mhz 286, and the receiving computer is a 25
Mhz 386 with a 32K cache. This goes to show that ShareWare
is just as good as any commercial program.
Both ZIP and LapLink Quick Connect are easy to use. I do
have to say that Laplink Quick Connect is much better for a
beginner or someone with a lot of file maintenance to do.
Well that wraps up all the entirely new individual programs.
Now it's time to mention the improvements to the old
programs.
--------
PC SHELL
--------
PC Shell has been drastically improved, although it's looks
are almost the same as the older version. There are several
things that I'd like to say about PC Shell, so many that I'll
probably get either you or me confused. So please excuse me
for any misleading information. Mainly I'll just try to
mention the improvements that I think you will want to hear
about.
My favorite new feature is the DOS command line. You can now
pop up PC Shell over another program, and then load another
program. This is a very handy feature, and has been quite
reliable so far. I have only encountered one or two lockups
since my purchase of the new version.
My most unloved feature is the three new user modes,
beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Not only do you have
three different user modes, you also have the option of
password protected user levels. The password protection is
for access to change the user level.
The mode differences are somewhat noticeable. Beginner mode
is rather simple. You can only perform basic DOS commands
and tasks. The are hardly no dangerous commands in this
mode. Intermediate mode has a few more commands that are a
bit more powerful. Lastly is the advanced mode. In this
mode, which is what I prefer, as probably yourself too, every
command and function is allowed.
Function keys in previous version of PC Shell were always
predefined. Now you can partially define some of the
function keys. What do you mean partially? Well you can
only define a function key to a command that is already in PC
Shell. For example, you could define a function key to
compare a file, but you could not have a function key to load
your terminal program. Now what do you mean by some of the
function keys? Well F1, F3, and F10 are still predefined
with their original stupid settings. F1 still pops up the
help, F3 still exits the program, and F10 brings up that
ridiculous menu bar on top of the screen.
File viewing capabilities in PC Shell has been expanded
tremendously! There are over 30 different file types that PC
Shell can view. Below is the entire list:
Database Viewers
================
Pardox
DBase
FoxBase
R:Base
Clipper
DBXL
Microsoft Works
Spreadsheet Viewers
===================
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus Symphony
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Excel
Borland Quattro
Mosaic Twin
Words and Figures
Multiplan
VP Planner Plus
Word Processor Viewers
======================
ASCII
Desktop Notepads
XYWrite
WordStar
WordPerfect
Microsoft Word
Word Star 2000
Display Write
MultiMate
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Windows Write
Miscellaneous Viewers
=====================
Binary
ARC
LZH
PAK
ZIP
ZOO
PCX
As you can see by the listing, there is about any file viewer
you could ever want.
Creating Applications to run is now simpler and a bit more
powerful. No more searching through all the applications to
edit, delete, or add a new one. All you have to do now, is
press a function key, and move the cursor bar. You can even
move the location of the application on the menu to another
location. For example, if you first application was
Compress, you could select the move command and make it the
second selection.
The application editor has been expanded to allow more
configurability when loading programs. Although it is
improved, it still needs a lot more improvement.
Each application has it's own specifications, which are:
Location of program
Directory to change to before loading program
Program parameters
User prompt which allows you to send a line of text to
the display and pause until a key is pressed.
Keystrokes to be passed to program being loaded
File specs for the application to automatically launch
a certain program with the highlighted file.
The first five of the specifications above can also include
the new keyword commands. Keyword commands allows you to
insert paths, file names, drive letters, and other
miscellaneous information. These may come in handy, but
there are some needed keywords. For instance, two that I
know of would more than double the power and flexibility of
the application editor. First, the ability to process tagged
files. Second, the ability to be prompted to enter text to
be inserted in to the command line. If these two keywords
would be added, you could create ZIP files and such as easy
as using Shez.
Another new improvement is the file search command. Before
you could only specify one wildcard file name. Now you can
enter almost as many as you want, and even exclude certain
file types. You can even have it search for the specified
text in the specified files.
PC Shell has many other improvements. They are not as major
as the ones listed above. I'll let you figure out the rest
when you get your copy of PC Tools Deluxe 6.
--------
COMPRESS
--------
Compress's features and functions have really not been
updated all that much. The speed and reliability are the
same us usual, which is pretty good. The only actual speed
improvement, is that Compress will now run faster when it
runs in to a file that is marked hidden and/or system and/or
read only. In the 5.5 version, Compress would take a very
long time to work when it run in to such a file.
------
MIRROR
------
No major updates.
-------
REBUILD
-------
No major updates.
---------
PC FORMAT
---------
No major updates.
--------
PC-CACHE
--------
PC-Cache has one major new feature. You can now cache disk
writes. While I don't recommend caching disk writes, I
haven't encountered any problems so far with this option
turned on. Disk writes will be combined so that disk writes
will be consecutive. The time it takes to start the disk
write can vary from one second to fourteen seconds.
---------
PC SECURE
---------
No major updates. It's still slow, and it still doesn't
compress to good. Get this, my copy of PC Tools on the
original disk came zipped up in a PKWare self-dissolving ZIP
file. Boy does Central Point have faith in their own PC
Secure program.
Well that wraps up the data recovery and DOS shell programs.
Now it's time to discuss the Desktop manager.
The Desktop program has been improved only a little. Only a
little because there wasn't much room for improvement. In
version 5.5, it did about everything. Now in version 6.0, it
seems it does everything.
----------------------
FAX TELECOMMUNICATIONS
----------------------
Fax support in one of the new features. I can't go in to a
great lot of detail about the fax support, simply because I
don't have a fax card.
First of all, it is only compatible with the Connection
CoProcessor (Intel Corp.) and SpectraFax (SpectraFax Corp.)
cards. This seems very limited to me. On the other hand,
several other clone fax boards may be compatible with either
of these two cards. I just don't know if there is a fax
standard or what.
You can send faxes to either another fax card or fax machine.
To do so is almost like using the Desktop terminal. Just
select the dialing number, and dial away. Once connected,
the selected files are sent. A log file is kept that
contains all your calls and transmissions.
There are really no other major features in Desktop. There
are lots and lots of minor improvements though. For
instance, the calculators are now more powerful. The
telecommunications now support E-Mail and fax functions. The
database is now more compatible, or seems to do a bit more.
To sum it all up, there is just a touch more of spice now.
---------
PC BACKUP
---------
Well this is my favorite program in the entire package. This
program could be sold by itself for the cost of the entire PC
Tools Deluxe package and still be a solid contender on the
market. It's powerful, it's simple, and it's fast!
I'll not go in to great detail, because I'd like to discuss
PC Backup in the next issue of ZIP Magazine. The reason is
because W.H. Lambdin, the co-editor of ZIP Magazine, will be
purchasing a tape drive system. I'd like to see how PC
Backup works with his tape drive when he gets it, and then
let you know too.
For now, I'll just list the new features.
Expanded tape drive support. Works with QIC-40,
QIC-80, and Irwin formats. Some of the common tape
drives that PC Backup actually supports are:
IBM:IBM PS/2 internal 80 MB
Compaq internal 40 MB
Mountain Filesafe Series TD-4000 and TD-8000
Colorado Memory Systems
Tecmar QT-40i
ArchiveXL Series 80
PC Backup with the appropriate drive and
tape, can backup to 250MB on one tape.
Compare backup to current files.
Append to backups (finally)!
Adaptive data compression up to 60%.
Increased speed. Will use CopyIIPC Deluxe Copy Option
Board if available on unformatted backup disks.
Name and password protect backups.
Well I hope that's enough to wet your appetite a little. I
know this review of PC Tools Deluxe 6 is a little weak, but
time has been hard to come by here lately. Sorry for any
disappointments. If you have some information about PC
Tools, you are welcome to spread the word. People like to
here different perspectives.
þþ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS þþ
Q: I wonder if you can help me with a problem I am having on
an IBM PS/2 model 50. Why does it always try to format a 3
1/2 diskette at 1.44 meg? I am only using DS/DD diskettes
instead of the DS/HD type. Brian Stamper
A: Standard 1.44 disk's have a square hole opposite the write
protect notch. IBM PS/2 computers have dis-abled the sensor.
This is one of the reasons that PC-Backup version 5.0 would
not work on a PS/2 computer. I have a possible tip for you to
force the PS/2 to format the disk's as DS/DD.
FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9
I am not possitive this will work. I have only been around
one PS/2. The parameters above forces the drive to format 80
track's per side with 9 clusters per track. I hope this
helps.
Q: Why does ZIP release it's issue's as ascii files? To me
it would be more attractive if you released it with ansi
color, like Modem News does. James Hartwell
A: You are right. We could add a lot of flash, and style to
ZIP Magazine by adding color. Below is the reason's why we
don't add flash to the issue's
1. ZIP Magazine brought it's reader's a review about
PC-Tools 5.5 before any other magazine did.
2. ZIP Magazine told people how to modify a 1.44 drive so
you could put 1.44 meg's of data on 720K diskettes,
without burning holes in diskette's, or spending $30 for
a mechanism to make holes in the diskettes.
3 ZIP Magazine told people how to make a VGA cable for the
Thompson Monitor. This will save people $35.
4. ZIP Magazine has brought you lot's of software review's,
and helped you make better decision's on what to buy.
Which would you rather have information that you can actually
use, or pretty ansi screens to look at?
Q: Why is ZIP Magazine formatted to be printed, and yet, why
is ZIP Magazine free? It seems to me that you could make a
lot of money if you sold it on news stands.Frank Jones
A: I will have to break this answer into two part's because
you asked two question's.
1. We started formatting it to be printed, just to make it
look nice. Then several people commented that they print
ZIP Magazine, and we never changed the format.
2. Neither Ron Alcorn or myself had the fund's necessary to
put it on news stands. ZIP Magazine is not really free.
We ask that people send donation's of whatever amount
they can spare. These donations help defray the expense
of distributing ZIP Magazine.
Q: I have two gripe's about ZIP Magazine.
1. There are several gramatical errors.
2. This Magazine seems to be directed to teenager's.
I am quite impressed at the thought that went into this
Magazine, But the two complaints bug the hell out of me.
James R. Rowland
A: English Teacher's? will be the death of ZIP Magazine.
(Just Joking), but gramatical error's are the #1 complaint,
but your second complaint is a first.
1.Gramatical errors: We only spell check, and block
out the paragraph's. Other than that, we leave the text as
is. I set this rule because I used to get tired of writing
articles, and then having the editor re-write my articles.
This is very frustrating to author's.
2. Teenager's: We have never had this complaint
before, but we try to avoid writing articles in
Computer-ease. People speak english instead of Binary.
2a. This Magazine is not a professional quality
magazine, and had never claimed to be. ZIP Magazine is
pointed toward the home DOS user. If we were poised for
business, we would review software costing hundred's, or
thousand's of dollars, and we would tout the advantages of
the 386, and 486 processor's. We are not, and will never be
another PC-Magazine.
We support, and review Share Ware because that is What we
can afford. Most other home MS-Dos user's are in the same
situation. We do review some commercial program's, but we
try limit it to program's costing less than $100. Ocassionaly
we break this rule, but when we do, you can say that it is
A: rates 4.5 to 5 *'s
B: The worst peice of Junk we have ever seen!
þþ BBS LISTING þþ
201 471-6391 PASSAIC BBS. Baud 300 - 19,200 using Hayes
V-series. Storage unknown. Sysop James Roy.
207 374-2303 CELEBRATION SHOP. Baud 1200, soon to be 2400.
Storage unknown. Operates 24 hours a day, Sysop Paul
Stookey. #3 Neworld Square, Blue Hill Falls Maine, 04615.
Paul Stookey was Paul in the singing group {Peter, Paul,
and Mary.}
216 264-5116 <TRI>-<WAY> BBS. Baud 300 - 2400 24 hrs.
Running Wildcat 2.0 multinode. Storage 130 meg. Carrying
ZIP Magazine. Over 500 files. Located in Wooster, Oh.
Sysop Dann Way
314 774-2736 The Waynesville BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running
Wildcat 1.13. with 104 meg. Sysop Raynond Andrell.
Specializes in FUN!!!
318 352-8311 Genesis BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. operating 24
hours a day. 65 meg storage. Sysop James Pottorff.
Genesis BBS is located in Natchitoches, LA.
318 457-1538 Toepfer's Electronics BBS. Baud 300-2400 Running
M&M BBS on a C-64. 24 hours of operation. Free
Registration. Storage 2 meg. Files for C-64, and MS-DOS
computers. Member of KSAT QDP. Home BBS of Citizens
Aligned for Better Television. SYSOP Darrel Toepfer.
Located in Eunice, La.
416 751-6337 (Data on 20 Node RBBS Customized System) Operate
BBS under the name of THE TORUS SUPPORT NETWORK,
Division of PCanada Systems Inc. 3 Giabytes on-line
including 4 CD-ROM's and operate primary server under
Microsoft OS/2 base LAN Manager (330 megabyte Priam Main
Server on a 386 20 Mhz Acer platform). System Sysop is
Bob Eyer, and we are currently in our seventh year of
operation.
501 273-9257 THE CHICKEN COOP. Baud 300 - 2400.
501 273-0152 THE CHICKEN COOP. Baud 9600. FOR HST, and V.32
modems. Running TBBS 2.1m. 130 meg of storage. Has many
online features including ZIP Magazine, InfoMat, and USA
Today. A member of the Software Distribution Network
which supplies virus and trojan free software direct from
the author's. SysOp Don Chick.
501 422-8777 The Personal Resource System. Baud 300 - 2400
501 444-8080 USRobotics Dual Standard (HST/V.32). This BBS
has several online publications such as InfoMat, Business
Sence, ZIP Beep, NASA Press, Online Digital Music Review,
USA Today, Amy Info, C-News Letter, and ZIP Magazine.
24 hours of operataion with 260 MEG of storage.
606 432-0879 STRAWBERRY PATCH. Baud 300 - 9600. Running PC
Board on a 286 machine. storage 1000+ meg (with PC Sig
library on CD-ROM. Files for MS-DOS. No download ratio,
but uses a point system. 45 mins access on first call.
Sysop Terry West. Located in Pikeville, Ky.
606 789-3423 The AdventureComm BBS. Running RBBS 17. Baud
300 - 2400. Storage 20 meg soon to be 70 meg. Sysop
Charles Baldridge. Located in Paintsville, Ky. Has
Dungeons and Dragons, and TradeWars online games for
verified users.
606 843-9032 SnapShot Express. Baud 1200 - 9600 V.42.
Running WWIV 4.11 on a 12 mhz AT clone. Storage 65 meg.
This BBS operates 24 hours a day. Files for IBM-DOS and
MS-DOS. Ratio 20 to 1. 90 minute access, and full
priveliges on first call. Sysop W.H. Lambdin. Ron
Alcorn. I am specializing in Graphics. So far, I have
over 300 gif pictures, and a few mac pictures. Adult
related files available. This BBS only supports the ZIP
archives. We are located in East Bernstadt, Ky.
606 878-9500 ZIP BBS. Baud 1200 - 9600 using USRobotics
Dual Standard (HST/V.32). Running TPBoard 6.0 on 12 Mhz
AT machine. Storage 60 MEG. Files for MS-DOS. Download
ratio 25 to 1. Full access on first call, no
registration hassles. Operates from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M.
(EST) 7 days a week. Sysop's Ron Alcorn & W.H. Lambdin.
Located in London, Ky.
609 327-5553 UNION LAKE BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running PC
Board on an 8088 machine. Free Registration. Storage 94
meg. Sysop George Cuccia. Carries 29 mail conferences.
612 654-8372 G C B BBS. Baud 1200 - 9600 Using U.S. Robotics
HST. Storage 200 meg. Online 24 hours a day. SysOp
Christine Blount. 30 minutes access on first call. This
BBS is located in St. Cloud, Mn.
616 382-3555 BIOS. Baud 300 - 9600 HST. Running WWIV v4.10
on a 8 MHz 8088 Turbo XT Machine. Storage 100 Meg. WWIV
national network node 6650 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Large
MS-DOS file selection, interesting message base and many
on-line games. SysOp Scott Randall.
703 742-6279 CORVETTE DRIVERS. Baud 1200 - 19,200. Running PC
Board on a 386 machine. Storage unknown. Files for
MS-DOS Download ratio 25 to 1. 45 mins access on first
call. Sysop David Arline.
714 785-9176 THE SOLID ROCK (CACOL) BBS. Baud 1200 -2400
Running WildCat 1.13. 80 meg storage. Sysop Ron Hossack.
Christian oriented system and doors available.
802 748-8449 HILLTOPPER. Baud 300 - 2400. Running TPBoard
6.0 on a 16 mhz 80286 machine. Storage 146 meg.
FidoNet # 1:132/401.0 in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. Sysop
Brian McQuade
802 888-7218 BEEHIVE. Baud 300 - 9600 with US Robotics HST
Running PC-Board 12.1 on an 80286 machine. Storage 160
meg. Has quite a few forum's for writers, and items for
sale, etc. Has relay mail with Terry West's BBS
(Strawberry Patch). Files for MS-DOS. No download
ratio, but uses point system. 30 minutes access on first
Call. Sysop Helenmarie B. Robitille.
818 961-7903 CALIFORNIA BUILDERS BOARD - (A MicroLink PCUG
SubBoard). Baud 300 - 2400. Running PCBoard 14.1/E3
919 383-8707 Bull City BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running Wildcat
1.13 on an 8088 machine. Storage unknown. 24 hrs
operation. Sysop Roy & Shirley Gurley. This BBS has over
55 doors.
If you would like to advertise your BBS in ZIP Magazine,
leave a message on either of the two home BBS's. If you have
access to the ZIP Magazine message conference (Part of the
Intelec network) you may leave you BBS ad's there. We would
allow you to leave a message on any support BBS, but they are
getting to numerous, and also the busy signal doesn't help us
any either.
þþ USERS GROUPS þþ
É-----------------------------------------------------------»
| |
| B.G.A.M.U.G. |
| The Bowling Green Area MS-Dos Users Group |
| |
| BGAMUG meets the 4th Tuesday of the month in the library |
| of Bowling Green High School at 7:00pm. Beginning Dos |
| classes are being planned and will be held in the |
| Computer Science classroom of Bowling Green High School |
| on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. |
| |
| For more information contact: |
| |
| BGAMUG |
| P.O.Box 20384 |
| Bowling Green, KY |
| 42102 |
| |
È-----------------------------------------------------------¼
þþ ZIP INFO þþ
by W.H. Lambdin & Ron Alcorn
This is ZIP, a paperless magazine. All submissions will be
printed, unless you ask us not to. We will not modify any
text you submit except for spell checking and any permission
you may give us. So views expressed here do not necessarily
reflect views of editors.
If you want to send us a submission, upload it to one of
BBS's with a * beside it. You can also send them to ZIP BBS
at (606) 878-9500, or SnapShot Express at (606) 843-9032.
When you upload a submission, use MAG as the extension. We
would appreciate it if all submissions were just ascii, and
margins set at 10 on left, and 10 on right. This isn't
demanded, it would just be easier on us. If you want to
submit programs you have written, send them along in an
archive with your text. We will check all programs and if
they prove to be unsuitable, we will reject them. (You know,
trojans, viruses, and other harmful programs).
If you submit a review, follow examples here. If you think
it is a very good program, rate it at 5 stars. If you think
it is of poor quality, then give it one star. If you think
it falls between grades, use a plus as this. ***+ This means
a rating of 3 1/2 stars, or a little better than average.
We will not make you run from place to place in order to read
one article. When we start an article, it will be printed in
it's entirety before another article will be started. All
advertisements will be found in back. I like to read articles
with as little trouble as necessary, and the same goes for
ad's. We will have advertisements, but the editors take no
responsibility in what you may see advertised, so buy at your
own risk.
ZIP is being written on an 25 Mhz 386, and a Tandy 1400LT
laptop using Galaxy 2.4. Galaxy is written by Omniverse
Incorporation. If you want to find a great Shareware word
processor, give Galaxy 2.4 a try. I liked it so much, I
registered my copy.
In order for this magazine to survive, it will need help from
it's readers. If you wish to correct us on something, or
write an article or review for ZIP, please send us your
responses. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you
wish to reprint an article or review from ZIP, feel free to
use it any way you wish, we only request that you give author
credit, and report that the article appeared in ZIP.
