Jennings, Thomas Daniel home address and phone: NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED! Fido Software 164 Shipley St. San Francisco CA 94107 home (415)-882-9832 work (415)-764-1688 Passport Number 051007005 DOB: 31 July 1955 Massachusetts Expires Nov 1995 If you want a more complete history of FidoNet, I can supply one,¨ as an ASCII file, it is about 4 - 8 pages typewritten. I'll¨ attempt to condense it to a paragraph or two. Needless to say, I¨ may leave out terribly important things. Fido and FidoNet were "just a hobby" until 1986, when it became¨ my full time project, such as it is. My personal goals for¨ FidoNet were and still are human, personal communications first¨ and foremost. The network was designed as totally decentralized¨ from the start, in 1984, to avoid take-overs by any single group,¨ regardless of intent. Fido the bulletin board came first, in 1983. I designed it to be¨ a simple to use but powerful BBS to take advantage of MSDOS's¨ features. (The only other choice for MSDOS at the time was¨ written in BASIC.) By spring of 1984, there were six to ten BBSs¨ running Fido, on IBM PCs and DEC Rainbow 100's. The genesis of the network is a long story, but basically it¨ bagan in spring of 1984, with the first model operating that¨ summer. It was (and still is) a transaction based "packet"¨ system, with packets containing any number of messages,¨ transferred from network node (BBS) to network node. Packets can¨ contain any number of messages, each addressed to any node in the¨ network. The network topology progressed from simple point to point,¨ concentrated point-to-point (all messages to a far-away¨ destination in a single packet/phonecall), two-tiered, and today,¨ three tiered with intercontinental gateways. The original packet¨ and message design is still used. There is a very complete¨ routing language to define or modify topology arbitrarily. I placed the protocol, also called "FidoNet", in the public¨ domain so that others could implement it. There are approximately¨ 20 "work-alike" programs for all sorts of computers; most were¨ implemented using the protocol specification document "FSC-001",¨ using ISO state-machine terminology, which was written by Randy¨ Bush, at 1:105/6. Fido was designed to run with the "lowest common denominator" PC¨ clone with at least 140K of free memory. Performance is by tight¨ fast code rather than fast processors: file transfers are within¨ 5% theoretical maximum at 2400 baud and below. Above 2400 you¨ need more processor to get maximum throughput. Fido can be used¨ at any rate from 300 to 19.2K baud, with "AT command" modems, or¨ direct-connect if no call-origination is needed. As of today (December 1988) there are just over 4,000 nodes in¨ the net in five continents. Today, I am a mere participant in the¨ network, and only one of many authors. * * * And if you care, here is my resume, in chronological order. The¨ dates are obviously very approximate. Ocean Research Equipment: 1973 - 1976: Technician, computer¨ programmer; ocean-going side-scan sonar, accoustic navigation,¨ mechanical systems. Operated accoustic navigation and sonar¨ systems in the field (North Atlantic, Great Lakes, Buzzards Bay) Bose Corp: 1977: Engineering technician, Ericcson PBX¨ maintainance. Solid State Technology: 1978: 8085 systems software for a (too)¨ early desk-top computer. Computer Service Systems Network: 1979 - 1980: Z80 systems design¨ (hard disk, tape and floppies) both hardware and software, for¨ CP/M and proprietary PDOS O/S. Microft Inc: 1981: CP/M, CP/M-86, PDOS BIOS consulting services. Avco Everett Research Laboratory: 1982: Designed a real-time 1¨ megabyte/sec data collection system using 24 Intel 8085's. Phoenix Software (known as Phoenix Technologies starting 1986):¨ 1982 - 1985: First employee after the owners partner. Mainly,¨ MSDOS system implementation and sundry utilities, from 86DOS 0.86¨ (MSDOS precursor) through MSDOS 3.05. Designed "portable BIOS"¨ that later lead to the Phoenix ROM BIOS. Ported MSDOS to IBM¨ Displaywriter, DEC Rainbow 100, Otrona Attache 8:16, and other¨ early (pre-IBM XT) computers. Apple Computer: 1985 - 1986: OS/ROM group, features and fixes to¨ Macintosh ROM (Mac SE and Mac II). Since 1986, self employed (or, more accurately, "self-unemployed") as Fido Software. PROJECTS Fido/FidoNet Serial device drivers (FOSSIL std) DOS tools (z, tell, scavenge, formatters, ) Syva DOS 1.x & 86DOS DOS 2.x DOS 3.x CP/M & 86 SBC (microft) hardware otrona attache multibuss box LPG car machine tools C, ass'y (8080, Z80, 808x, 8x300, 68xx, DG Nova, Sperry/Varian), fortran,