HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu (victor porguen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Virus Advice needed
Date: 29 Dec 1992 03:45:21 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: unlinfo.unl.edu

knepley@CS.ColoState.EDU (Ranseus (Jim Knepley)) writes:


>I would bet a lot of money that Target re-wrapped it.  Companies aren't known
>for spreading viruses (with the exception of Michaelangelo, but that's
>another story).  

Of course companies aren't "known" for spreading viruses. Nobody is 
"known" for spreading viruses. Once a virus is released, it spreads
usually without operator knowledge - that's precisely how viruses 
work.  Most virus incidents are unintentional.


Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: laisietl@iscs.nus.sg
Subject: DOS Device driver
Reply-To: LAISIETL@NUSDISCS.BITNET
Organization: Dept. of Information Systems and Computer Science, National University of Singapore
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 08:28:11 GMT

Dear Netters,
   I'm a beginner in the abovementioned area. I followed through
a book titled "Writing DOS device drivers in C" by Phillip M. Adams &
Clovis L. Tondo published by Prentice Hall. However, when I keyed in
the source codes accordingly, the programs (e.g. visual, console etc)
just refused to work. Does anyone of you encountered this problem and
would like to share with me your experience ?? How do you contact
the authors to obtain a soft copy of the programs ? I did try to
send postal mail to Dr Phillip M.Adams but in vain. I'll appreciate
it very much if you could provide me with some pointers !!

Thank you very much !

Merry Christmas to everybody !

Regards,
  S L Lai
From: vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu (victor porguen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Viruses, viruses!
Date: 1 Jan 1993 04:04:13 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: unlinfo.unl.edu
Keywords: Virus Stoned

bathurst@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Bruce Bathurst) writes:

>In article <1htpooINN2jp@crcnis1.unl.edu> vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu
>(victor porguen) writes:

>>The Gipsy Scholar (Bruce Bathurst, bathurst@phoenix.princeton.edu),
>>writes:

>That's GYPSY!

>Bruce
>-- 

I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry!!!!
I will never, never misspell your... ah, name, again!
From: westes@smurf.sti.com (Will Estes)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Need To Re-Format IDE Drives When Changing Controllers?
Date: 20 Dec 1992 19:20:34 -0800
Organization: Mail Group
NNTP-Posting-Host: smurf.sti.com

Is there a need to re-format an IDE drive when it is placed on a
different manufacturer's host adapter in the same PC?  I noticed while
changing an IDE drive the other day that the new IDE host adapter was
able to read and write to an IDE drive formatted by another
manufacturer's host adapter without any obvious problems.

-- 
Will Estes		Internet: westes@netcom.com
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: pirzyk@vinny.cecer.army.mil (Jim Pirzyk)
Subject: Re: Question about Gateway modem vs Boca Modem
Organization: US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Labs
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 21:36:41 GMT

In <1ht1ksINNbgj@uwm.edu> gwc@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Greg F Walz Chojnacki) writes:

>From article <1992Dec30.093406@mycro.UUCP>, by scott@mycro.UUCP (Scott C. Sadow):
>> 
>>    I am looking at buying a 14.4 modem, and have narrowed it down to
>> either the modem from Gateway or a Boca Research modem. Both are about
>> $200. The Gateway has the advantage of being from Gateway - I have had
>> very good luck with them. (I know about the first release of the modem -
>> it had problems and was recalled. I recall reading that the newest version
>> is good, though)  The Boca modem is from the same people who made my VGA
>> card (1024x768x256, tseng 4000) and have not had any problems with it, nor
>> has anyone in my office.
>>
>There was some discussion about modems a couple of weeks ago. About the only
>thing I remember is that the BOCA lacked a UART. I can't tell you what the
>practical consequence of that is (can someone, please?).  However, I bought
>a used Boca 14.4 Kbaud FAX/modem and so far, no complaints.

>Greg

>P.S. A summary would be most welcome.


I have dealt with the BOCA 14.4 modems also.  The problem that we ran into
is that they could not connect to another BOCA 14.4 modem.  We called BOCA
about it and they had no idea what the problem was.  We could connect to
their modems but they only stated that they were "equivalent".  We decided
that they were not using the same modem, and we wound up returning the modems.

- Jim
-- 
[Jim] pirzyk@uiuc.edu ------------------------------------------
TAC System Administrator, US Army Corps of Engineers
Construction Engineering Research Labratories, Champaign IL USA
/* Contract employees only, bureaucrats need not apply */
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
From: cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters)
Subject: Faq style question, serial ports...
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 15:04:40 GMT

Sorry if this is a FAQ, but I've not read this group before...

I have a PC with 2 serial ports on the motherboard, and a 
2400 bps modem (internal).

My current setup is :

Com1 (9pin)	-	Mouse driver
COM2 (25)	-	disabled (in the CMOS setup)
Modem		-	COM2

I'd like to be able to use the 25 pin COM2, plus use the internal 2400 modem.

I FTP a lot of files for my old commodore stuff, and would rather use the 
25 pin serial to transfer to it rather than linking the two systems via modem
(which I have done).

The internal modem can be set to com1 thru com4.  The two built in ports are
fixed at com1 and com2.

Any suggestions?
-Coyt
From: vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu (victor porguen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: A Frank Discussion on Piracy (Flames, Anyone? : -P )
Date: 29 Dec 1992 03:51:07 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: unlinfo.unl.edu

jenk@microsoft.com (Jen Kilmer) writes:

>In article <rice.725054644@willow23> rice@zizania.cray.com writes:
>>jdp@osric.cs.odu.edu (JD Powell) writes:
>>
>>>...and lenient return policies of the vendors they deal with.  Please post 
>>>the names of these vendors for the rest of us....  Who are the good guys?
>>
>>Egghead Discount Software will accept returns of opened software.  I think
>>the limit is 30 days.  

>I don't want to cause a panic, and all resellers I've heard of are 
>very careful, but, btw, viruses are also spread via returned-and-
>re-shrinkwrapped software.

That has often been _said_ to be the case, but I think it's mainly a
theoretical possibility rather than a primary means of spreading 
infection. Of course it has happened here and there. But perhaps not
as often as people say or think... ?

>"Careful" translates to either "all returns go back to the manufactuerer"
>or "all returns are scanned for viruses before being resold" (I am referrring
>to undamaged returns).

>A not-very-common windows 3.0 setup problem is caused by the windows original
>disks being infected with a virus (microsoft is very careful about the
>"health" of the master diskettes and even duplicates disks on machines
>running xenix, so even if the duplicator gets infected it can't affect the
>MS-DOS-based or Macintosh-based software on the disks).  Each case we know
>about, the software had been installed previously on an infected system
>(and sometimes returned, re-shrinkwrapped, and re-sold). No such problem is
>known about windows 3.1. Windows 3.0 shipped on writable disks; windows 3.1
>(and the ms-dos 5 upgrade, and most new products being released) are shipped
>on "permanently" write-protected disks.  


Of course, backup disks and "backup disks" are not so 
write-protected... 


>From a support standpoint, this is seriously cool (unless the user cut
>a notch in a set of 5.25"s, no viruses, no accidently-deleted-the-file-we
>-need, etc :)

Just copy the disk and you have an infectable medium.
From: Michel_Gerber@bearsden.UUCP (Michel Gerber)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Virus Advice needed
Date: 28 Dec 92 05:30:38 GMT
Organization: The Bear's Den BBS   (715) 839-7997

This may not be the best area for this message, but the BBS I'm using
doesn't carry any Virus Areas, besides this has a lot to do with Misc DOS

My cousin's computer in Iowa has justed been stoned!!!  He called me a
couple 
of nights ago requesting help.  He is getting the "Your Computer has been 
Stoned" message on occasion, and Windows is detecting a possible virus
since 
it can't run in 32 bit enhanced mode because something else -- the virus --

is taking up a certain memory location.  
 
Get this!!!  He got the virus from Target, as far as we can tell that is. 
He 
recently bought California Games put out by a company called EPYX (I would 
like to get a hold of this company, but they didn't give their adderess)
    Why do we think it was from the game's disk?
       1. The program won't work to start with
       2. He didn't start getting the virus until after he accidently
          re-booted with that disk in the drive, causing the Non-system
disk
          error, this method is a popular virus transporter
 
We have discovered that his IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS files had been modified!!!
Comparing with those on a start-up disk, we found the bytes to be the same 
but the time and date were different.  Since the system works fine when 
booted from floppy and still using the hard drive to load all other device 
drivers, we assumme that the virus has only affected the hard drives boot 
sector and/or files.  I instructed him to try to replace the modified SYS 
files with those from the floppy, but I haven't heard from him yet to know
if that worked.
 
I am sending him McAfee's Virus Scanner and Clean-Up program to check his 
files and make sure the system is clean, and to check to see if the virus 
really did come from the California Games disk.  Hopeful he can keep his 
data safe.
 
I once again would like help tracking down the company EPYX which puts the 
game out.  The package was shrink wraped at time of purchase, so unless
Target re-wrapped it, is would have to have come from EPYX.  

What other advice shoud I give him, what DOS methods are able to fix the
problem other than re-formatting and installing everything over again?

                          Please E-Mail me if you have any advice
                          My adderess is Michel_Gerber@bearsden.UUCP

                          Thanks a lot,  Mike

-- Via DLG Pro v0.992
From: beng@dorsai.com (ben ng)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: ms-dos 6
Date: 29 Dec 92 22:29:16 GMT
Organization: The Dorsai Embassy, New York's Computer Consulate. +1.718.729.5018

Whats the word on this bird?

Ben Ng
beng@dorsaid.com
uupsi!dorsaidm!beng
1:278/706
From: slc@a2.cim.cdc.com (Steve Chesney x4662)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: IBM XT upgrade
Keywords: XT
Date: 29 Dec 92 20:40:16 GMT
Reply-To: slc@a2.cim.cdc.com (Steve Chesney x4662)

At my wife's job (a church) she is obligated to use a vintage IBM XT with
a 10 meg hard disk, color display and IBM PC-DOS 2.10.  
Since she is used to our 386, it seems slow to her.  Are there any cheap and
simple upgrades that we could try to alleviate this?  I am considering:

upgrade to MS-DOS 5.0
use of a console driver like NANSI
use of a disk cache
optimize the disk (with something PC TOols Optimize)
check disk interleave and adjust (with SpinRite or PC Tools DiskFix)

Any other ideas? 
-- 
Steve Chesney                                    slc@a2.cim.cdc.com     
Control Data Corporation                         612-482-4662 (voice)
4290 Fernwood Avenue                             612-482-4001 (fax)
Arden Hills, MN  55112
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
From: ndit@pax.eunet.ch (NDIT)
Subject: Install Disk unknown by BIOS?
Organization: EUnet Login/Mailbox Service
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:26:48 GMT

Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.misc
From: lh7873@albnyvms.bitnet
Subject: Stac Software Customer Service (comments welcome)
Reply-To: lh7873@albnyvms.bitnet
Organization: University of NY at Albany
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 01:56:09 GMT

I would like to take this time to invite all that have
had experience with Stac software please post their
opinions --> _Good or Bad._
Maybe someone over there (Carlsbad CA) will see this and 
maybe install some toll free 800 lines...
With all the competition in compression, they might take 
note of us, thier customers!

I will start by saying this:

	My Colleage and I had a problem installing Stacker 2.0.
It stopped mid-installation.  When I called them in CA, I was
put on hold for twenty minutes.  If you are familiar with this
company you will know that when you call them you pay for the 
call.  They don't have any 800 lines.  After talking for ten 
minutes I was told to go out and buy a disk utilities program
to check my hard drive.  A thirty minute call and no answers. I
hung up frustrated, looked into a utility program, didn't buy one,
came home and
formated my drive, reinstalled Stacker 2.0, installed all my applications,
and all my 'backed up' files (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BEFORE INSTALLING
STACKER), and lived happily ever after.  No problems with my HD,
Probably could have avoided hours of reinstalling all apps, with
some help on the phone.  

There see, it's not too hard.  Please post any interaction good,
or bad, with Stac Software. 

Xref: sparky comp.os.msdos.programmer:11701 comp.lang.c++:18545 comp.lang.c:19031
From: todd@library.calpoly.edu (Todd Kennedy)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: How can cursor be suppressed?
Keywords: no_blink, program
Date: 1 Jan 93 19:07:08 GMT
Organization: Kennedy Library, Cal Poly, SLO

In article <C06qwr.5yw@world.std.com> jkenton@world.std.com (Jeff Kenton) writes:
>news@massey.ac.nz (USENET News System) writes:
>
>>I am searching for a program to switch off the DOS cursor, but have so far 
>>only found a Unix program.
>>Does someone know a program name and site? Thanks.
>
>Try moving the cursor to line 25 (below the last line on the screen).
>

Or, if you're using Borland 'C', use:  _setcursortype(_NOCURSOR) Of
course, at the end of the program you'll have to turn the cursor back on
with _setcursortype(_NORMALCURSOR)

						Todd


-- 
============================================================================
Todd M. Kennedy                           Email: todd@library.CalPoly.EDU or
Polycat System Support                           tkennedy@flute.CalPoly.EDU
San Luis Obispo, CA                       Phone: (805) 756-2190
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: rbairos@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (Rob Bairos)
Subject: Null Modem Cable Dilusion Confusion
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 01:11:16 GMT


Hi, a couple of days ago, I posted my problem concerning file transfers
between my two PC's.  The following is the solution and my experiences
if anyone's who's interested.  Thanks for the responses!
 
After fiddling with mismatching connections for a couple of hours,
I salvaged two joystick cords from my old colecovision and gemini,
(these contain at least 8/9 possible wires in them).  I used the
Radio Shack null modem adapter as a guide.  The two cords were
connected on a one to one basis except for the following:
 
 
 pins 2 and 3 were cross-connected.
 pin 4 on one was connected to (6 *and* 8) on the other, (& vice versa)
 pins 5 were connected.
 pins 1 7 and 9 were left unnconnected.
 Pin 7 is supposed to be signal ground, so to compensate I clipped
 a jumper from one metal chasis to the other.
 
After several scotch-tape pieces later, I plugged them into the 
9-pin ports where the mice usually fit in.  

I used PCplus and was about to give up cuz I almost didn't notice what
I typed on one keyboard showed up on the other screen. I set it to
max baud rate, threw in an extra stop bit (figured it would be more
stable) and disabled all carrier-detect options.  (don't know why
carrier detect wasn't detecting).  Anyways, it worked beautifully*.

*Well, until I disabled disk-caching software and *disabled* turbo
speed on the one PC, the max average cps was about 2700 using ZModem.
After I got it up to 9900 - 10,000cps with strange 10sec+ pauses
appearing spurratically.  

That's my story.  There's better software out there for the actual
transfer.  I had to keep shelling-out, and creating new directories
manually.  

One small strike against the RS-232 conspiracy!


Rob Bairos
From: spencer@cats.ucsc.edu (Michael Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Math error in BC++? Help!
Date: 21 Dec 92 20:49:35 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


sonix@schunix.uucp (Duane Morin) writes:

>This is driving us NUTS!! Will someone please take a look at the following 
>code and see if they can figure out why it does what it does?  Thank you.

>// This next one is our error:
>#define ILOGN(y) (int) (log ((double)y) / LOG2 )
==============================================================

The problem may be with the spacing on your define, try:

#define ILOGN(y) ((int)(log ((double)y) / LOG2 ))

				Good luck
					Mike Spencer
					spencer@cats.ucsc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c
From: lamastus@sundew.dab.ge.com (Patrick Lamastus)
Subject: Help with DOS stderr               
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 15:00:59 GMT
Organization: GE Simulation & Control Systems
Distribution: usa

I need to know were to find the DOS standard errors.

Ex.
   fprintf(stderr, "Error %d\n",errno);
   exit(1);

Thanks in advance.

lamastus@sunny.dab.ge.com
From: rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Fix for Zortech 386 Screen Memory Access wanted
Date: 28 Dec 92 09:45:33 GMT
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin

In <1992Dec27.000209.19554@proto.com> joe@proto.com (Joe Huffman) writes:

>rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace) writes:

>>Basically the method of accessing screen memory I'm using is with a far
>>pointer with segment = B800h and offset = row*160 + column*2, to give a
>>pointer to the character+attribute at (row,column). This works fine in
>>tiny, small, large etc. memory models, but does not work in extended
>>(option mx) memory model - as soon as I try to write a value into the

>The following should work:

>#include <dos.h> /* For the declaration of _x386_zero_base_selector. */
>		 /* Also, MK_FP() is prototyped. */
>int main()
>{
>  char _far *screen_ptr = MK_FP(_x386_zero_base_selector, 0xb800);

>  /* Now use the screen_ptr as you normally would, it points to the base
>     address of the start of the screen. */

>  /* If you get the X-32VM extender (the successor to DOSX) from FlashTek,
>  there is a near pointer that points to the start of memory 0000:0000 that
>  you could also use for somewhat faster access.   It is called 
>  _x32_zero_base_pointer (or ptr, I forget right now). */
>}

Thanks, this works perfectly! (Except the typo: 0xb800 in the above
should read 0xb8000. With this, there are no further problems.)
--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie
From: dick.zeitlin%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Dick Zeitlin) 
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Newbie Wants Advice o
Date: 29 Dec 92 17:06:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Advanced Computer Concepts BBS, New Rochelle, NY 914-654-1981
Reply-To: dick.zeitlin%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Dick Zeitlin) 

  > .>> Oh?  Have you ever seen C code written by a former FORTRAN programmer?
  > .>> If so, by how many?  Universally you will find:
  > .>>    1) Very short, illegible variable and function names, with the
  > .>>       first character wasted (all integers must start with 'i', don't
  > .>>       you know)
  > .>>    2) No use of structures
  > .>>    3) No linked lists or trees
  > .>>    4) No whitespace
  > .>>    5) Lots of illegible "creative" formulas
  > .>>    6) No comments

MM> .My error, and it is genuine, is that I omitted "self-taught"; i.e., I
  > .was referring to those FORTRAN programmers who taught themselves C in a
  > .vacuum.

No, your error is in assuming that the FORTRAN programmers that you know
are indeed typical.  I'm a self-taught Asm, FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL,
Pascal, C, etc. programmer.  I started doing FORTRAN using FORTRANSIT on
an IBM 650, and my FORTRAN code doesn't have any of the characteristics
that you outline above.  (I _was_ constrained to 7 character variable
names, since that's the language syntax.)

Good technique has always been good technique, and bad technique will
always be bad technique.  There's far more obfuscated C code than
unreadable FORTRAN code.  Many C coders seem to take a perverse pride in
generating virtually unreadable trash that often borders on being
unmaintainable.

And, of course, there's an "Obfuscated C" contest, but no corresponding
obfuscated Pascal, FORTRAN, COBOL, etc. contest.

(Your apology is accepted...  <~> )

        D/
---
 . QMPro 1.0 41-3345 . Bring back A-N airways!!    Dick.Zeitlin%acc1bbs@ssr.com
From: olw7845@zeus.tamu.edu (Zeke E. Pez)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Turbo C++ 3.0 under DOS, I got a real simple (hopefully) question.
Date: 2 Jan 1993 02:08 CST
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: zeus.tamu.edu
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

I am currently using TC++ 3.0's I.D.E. to conveniently compile/link/ and
run my code on-the-fly.  Lately, I have written some code that uses
some INCLUDE header files and LIB's that are not part of TC++ but are third
party headers and LIBS. I obviously keep these non-TC++ headers and libs in
different sub directories from the standard TC++ headers and libs. I have tol
TC++ where it can find these headers and libs in the I.D.E. in hopes that 
automatic compiling/linking and running convenience is maintained.

I can compile with all the headers but I cannot Link my code from within
the I.D.E. because the linker does not know the name of the non-TC++ LIB.

I have remedied the situation,(albeit using stop/gap ways) by creating a cute
little MAKE file,but I lose the convenience of the I.D.E.!

whaa whaaaaaa, whiiinnnneee!! 
I know I know , I try not to whine but I just have toooo 
sooomeeetiiiimmmmees ;)

How can I get the I.D.E. to mimic what my MAKE file does while maintaining the
convenience of the I.D.E.(how do I tell the linker where the LIB is inside the
I.D.E.) ???? 


Thanks,
Zeke
From: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: MS-DOS in 386 protected mode
Date: 22 Dec 92 18:08:28 GMT
Reply-To: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Organization: Zortech, Seattle

In article <1gf2v6INN63f@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> iwirawan@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Indra Wirawan) writes:
/bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright) writes:
/>I guess that all those 32 and 16 bit DOS programs I run in protected mode
/>under DOS every day were just 'pretending' to work... :-)
/If I'm not mistaken, you're the author of Zortech C/C++ compiler right ?

Yes.