_____________________ SWAPPING - FAQ vO.9 ____________________
_ answers to frequently asked questions about _
_ mail-swappers and swapping _
august 31, 1998
typed in by dentoe /sdi
for contributors see _ 24
_ OO introduction
_ O1 what is a faq?
_ O2 what is swapping and what is a swapper?
_ O3 what do i need to swap? !
_ O4 what do all these crazy abbreviations and words mean?
_ O5 what is a contact?
_ O6 where can i get addresses / contacts from? !
_ O7 is swapping expensive?
_ O8 which is the best way to send media xxx? +!
_ O9 what is cheating and how is it done?
_ 1O how can i prevent disk errors?
_ 11 how can i repair disk errors?
_ 12 should i answer / write letters along with the files?
_ 13 what's the best way to answer letters efficiently?
_ 14 which language should i use for my letters?
_ 15 what's the best for storing the letters?
_ 16 what's a standard letter? !
_ 17 what about those converters that make letters look
cooler?
_ 18 what makes up a really good swapper? !
_ 19 what about nicknames and handles?
_ 2O what's a file_id.diz?
_ 21 why should i use a header?
_ 22 what is a diskstealer?
_ 23 what can i do if i don't get back my disks? !
_ 24 contributors-list
_ 25 legal disclaimer
_ + this section mainly deals with the way of sending disks and
other medias in germany
_ ! this section is new or has been modified since the previous
release of the faq (also in the text)
_OO__________introduction__
i, robert lischke aka dentoe, created this faq mainly just for
fun and to introduce the interesting art of swapping to the
public. but this is also a faq i wish to have had, when i first
started swapping.
for any suggestions, further questions, in the case you want to
add something to this faq, scene-swapping or for the latest
version of this faq please contact me (snailmail only -- i'm a
mailswapper ;):
_ robert lischke
schwarzwurzelstr. 18
12689 berlin
(germany)
any typos and grammatical errors in this document were just made
for your amusement -- have a good laugh at them :)
_O1__________what is a faq?__
faq means "frequently asked questions". since this file you're
reading at the moment actually is a faq, it answers these
frequently asked questions (here about swappers and swapping).
_O2__________what is swapping and what is a swapper?__
first of all i have to mention, that i'm referring to
mail-swapping in this small faq. a mail-swapper (from now on
just swapper) is a person who likes the taste of stamps and who
likes to exchange some files (scene or non-scene files) with his
so-called contacts (see "what is a contact"). swapping is just
what he does: sending disks to some persons, waiting for their
reply, sending them some files, etc.
swapping is the best way for "sceners" to exchange themselves
with other guys! not as fast as internet and maybe without a soo
good "price / service-condition" like some other ways to
exchange yours, but it is much more personal and creative.
perhaps it sounds very strange, but within a disk you can put
much more emotional feelings than in anything else. it's a real
"personal meeting" in a far distance. you also can make it more
anonymous than internet, if you want. disks are live in
progression! but you can put much more in an envelope than a
simple disk -- creativity is set no border!
_O3__________what do i need to swap?__
basically you just need any computer, a disk drive (or something
similar), some files you want to exchange, addresses of some
swappers and (of course) some disks (or nearly any other
(ex-)changable data storage medium).
as mentioned this is just a basic compilation of things you'll
need. i also recommend, that you use a file manager (for easy
file handling, like copying, deleting, etc.) and an archiver (to
get most out of the disk space).
on the ibm-pc i strongly recommend you to use the "norton
commander 5.O" (by symantec -- for dos), "dos command center"
(shareware by daniel pantke), "ufo" (universal file operator
! v96.2 -- by deus ex machina communications) or "dos navigator
! 1.5O" (by rit s.r.l.). all of them are quite easy to use, fast
and you can compress and decompress the files using only one
! interface. i (dentoe) prefer the "dos navigator" because it
! supports really a lot of archivers, it's fast and still very
! flexible.
to compress and decompress files, you also need archivers. most
of the files are compressed using pkzip ("*.zip"). so get the
latest version of this program -- i think it's 2.O4g. other
archivers you should have on your disk: rar, arj, lha and jar
(the compressed files always have the same extension as the name
of the archiver).
since "nc 5.O" can't handle especially newer archivers like rar
! or jar (all others can do so), i suggest you to get also either
! "aview" (by chris buijs) or "ainviewer" (by palm /pci). you can
use them to view and extract other archives than internally
supported by nc (both are free- respectifly cardware).
a very useful utility you'll sometimes need for swapping is a
"file_id.diz-extractor". this tool will automatically copy the
file descriptions (see "what's a file_id.diz?") into one huge
file, and you'll get a nice list of the files you have. then you
can put your address into the header and send this file to your
contacts, so that they can say exactly which files they want and
which not. but they also know which files you're already owning
and you don't need anymore (useful if you swap with e.g.
zip-disks).
probably the best "file_id.diz-extractor" you'll find is "fid"
by palm /pci. this tool handles all known and unknown archives,
is quite fast and nearly fully configurably. "fid" is
distributed as cardware.
you'll also need a good and new virus-scanner, like f-prot.
that's important, because you should check really *every*
diskette you get from a contact. even if you're absolutely sure,
that there is no virus on the disk, scan it! either take this 2
minutes of your time, or you'll sometimes have some fun for a
whole week or more (checking every disk, cleaning the whole hd
and informing all your contacts, that you had an infection...)
the (english) shareware-version of f-prot is free for
non-commercial usage.
as most anti-virus programs don't know how to decompress
! archives (from version 3.OO on, "f-prot" can handle files
! compressed with "zip" and "arj". there's also "avp" (anti-virus-
toolkit pro), which can scan archives, but up to today i
(dentoe) only found older versions of it.), it's important to
copy the whole contents of the disk you received from your
contact to your hd, decompress all archives and have the
anti-virus program scan the decompressed files. otherwise it
might happen that a virus is hidden in one of the archives and
you won't notice it because your anti-virus program didn't scan
the content of the archives.
if you want to answer and write letters, it wouldn't be wrong to
have a good and fast text-editor. i prefer "aurora" (by nutext
systems) which can handle very large files and has some nice
features (like reformatting the text in these blocks), but i
think any other will also do fine (even "qbasic /edit" or the
old "edlin"). a file manager always provides a text-editor, too,
but as far as i know they are not as flexible and fast as
seperate text-editors.
here (again) is the list of software you'll probably need:
_ file manager (norton commander / dos command center / ufo)
_ archivers (pkzip / rar / arj / lha / jar)
_ archive viewer (aview / ainviewer)
_ file_id-extractor (fid)
_ virus-scanner (f-prot / mc afee scan etc.)
_ any text-editor (aurora or any other)
_O4__________what do all these abbreviations and words mean?__
here is a (definitly not so complete) list of words and
abbreviations, you may find:
_ ;) / :) / ... smiley -- take a look into a smiley-file to
learn more about them!
_ "grin"
_ aka "also known as"
_ bbs "bulletin board system"
_ btw "by the way"
_ contact see "what is a contact?"
_ contax contacts
_ cu (l8er) "see you (later)"
_ disx disks
_ elite / eleete guys who say they are "elite", are often very
unfriendly to people who are new in the scene
scene. but often they're just real "lamers"
_ e-mail electronic-mail (often via internet)
_ hp "homepage"
_ im(h)o "in my (humble / honest) opinion"
_ lamer is an invective for people who have not been
in the scene for a long time. but only real
"lamers" call other people "lame" (quite
confusing, i know ;)
_ noe "not on envelope" -- means you shouldn't write
your contact's handle on the envelope (also
see "what about nicknames and handles?").
_ ppl "people"
_ snailmail mail sent via the post-office
_ tnx / thanx thanks
_O5__________what is a contact?__
a contact is the person you have contact with, and you are
exchanging the software or other things with. sometimes this
person is also a "professional" swapper, and sometimes it's not.
_O6__________where can i get addresses / contacts from?__
that's a quite difficult question. at first you should look into
a local computer magazine for addresses. here in germany i
strongly recommend the "computer flohmarkt". there are always
people who search for new contacts on nearly all known
computer-systems! i don't know if there is a similar magazine in
other countries (if so, please tell me!).
you can also take a look into diskmags. there are often
sections, where the addresses of more or less professional
swappers are given (there are even some kind of advertisements).
sometimes you can also find addresses in the info-files
("*.nfo") of some releases. but since more and more people are
buying a modem and the scene's moving to the internet, don't
expect to much from this method.
i once got a huge file, where swappers from all over europe
offered their business. this file was quite old, so i didn't
know, if these addresses were okay, but i think it's really a
good idea -- so keep your eyes open for similar files (e.g. i
know, that such a file, named "billboard!", is released
unregularly in poland by exodus).
i think the last (and definitly not so good) possibility is to
ask your contacts for some addresses. but do not only write to
people who also write to one of your contacts. you'll soon
notice, that more and more files are doubled and that you loose
control.
_O7__________is swapping expensive?__
definitly *yes*! it's really expensive. if you have a lot of
contacts (esp. foreign swappers) you write regularly to, you'll
soon get into heavy money problems (especially here in germany).
some guys are cheating to lower the costs for some sendings (see
"what is cheating and how is it done?").
_O8__________which is the best way to send media xxx?__
_ 3,5"-disks
that's the easiest and commonest way of swapping. you just put
up to 2 disks into a normal envelope, put stamps for 2,2O dm on
it and there you go.
if you just want to send 1 disk (e.g. for getting a new contact,
and you don't want to risk too many disks) 1,1O dm postage is
*not* enough -- you'll have to pay the regular price of 2,2O
because even one disk weigths more than 2Og.
in germany you'll also have the possibility to send your disks
as a so-called "warensendung" which is often much cheaper. to do
so, just write "warensendung" on the envelope and ask the nice
woman in the post-office, how much it costs (usually 1,3O dm).
if you want to send more than 2 disks it's always better to use
a bigger envelope. into big standard envelopes (these longer
ones) there fit up to 6 disks. but the best way of sending a
huge amount of 3,5"-disks is the following:
put 6 disks into an area of 2x3 disks. then tape them together,
so that they don't get screwed up. you can use up to 3 of these
2x3-disk-layers (that's 18 disks!) and put them into a standard
a4-envelope. write "warensendung" on the envelope and you'll
just pay 3 dm of postage (i'm referring to germany, of course).
_ 5,25"-disks
nobody i (beryl) know swaps with these disks today, cause they
are very shitty. on the one hand, they don't fit into a normal
envelope and on the other hand they probably break down very
often. furthermore a lot of people (on the ibm-pc) don't own
such a disk-drive anymore.
but this method is still used on the good old c64 (and other
systems using this disksize).
_ zip-disks
this is my (dentoe) preferred way. zip-drives are quite common
(compared with e.g. mo-drives), the disks are quite cheap (about
25,-dm or less each) and you'll get 1OOmb of stuff in just one
sending.
for zip-swapping i recommend a padded envelope to be sure, that
the disk doesn't get screwed up. since padded envelopes are
quite expensive, you can also build yourself a padding, that you
can reuse in standard envelopes.
sending zip-disks should cost 3 dm -- didn't try to send them as
"warensendung" yet.
_ cd-roms
sending cd-roms is comparable to sending zip-disks. you just
need a padded envelope or a padding. germans should write
"vorsicht -- nicht knicken!" on the envelope, to be sure, that
the cd-rom is not broken.
! another method to send a whole bunch of cd-roms (without those
! jewel-cases) is, to take an old issue of a magazine, put the
! disks into it, put all that into a transparent envelope (the
! post-office wont check the true contents of the envelope,
! because they think there's only a magazine inside), write
! "bchersendung" on it (that's really important) and just pay
! 1,5O dm of postage.
_ harddisks
this one's quite strange and i have never seen or tried this
method -- but with a package or via "ups" this should be
possible (though it's probably really expensive!).
_O9__________what is cheating and how is it done?__
cheating means, that you try to save money on postage. swapping
and stamp-cheating often go hand in hand. sometimes a swapper
can only afford to have a lot of contacts, if he cheats. but i
also should mention, that cheating is, of course, highly
illegal! i don't know what happens if you get caught, but be
warned!
if you want to cheat, i think it's better not to write your
address as sender on the envelope (maybe even not your handle).
! and you also shouldn't visit your post-office, just throw the
! envelopes into the post box.
to cheat, just put some glue ("pritt-stick" or "uhu-stick" will
do fine) on the stamps and let it dry. then your contact can put
the stamps into warm water -- the postmark will be removed due
to the glue -- and he can reuse the stamps for a second or third
time. you can also let your contact send the stamps back, so
that you can reuse them on your own letters.
but remember -- if *you* cheat, others will have to pay for it!
_1O__________how can i prevent disk errors?__
after some time of swapping you'll soon notice, that you get
disk errors, on reading files from the disk. i don't know really
how they can happen (magnetic fields, metal things or something
similar), but as a swapper you have to live with them. you can't
protect the disks for 1OO%! but you can try it by following
these small rules:
when sending two (or more) 3,5"-disks in a standard envelope, be
sure to put the holes on the back-side of the disk together! so
that the side, where normally the disk-sticker is, shows to the
outside.
also try to keep the shutter (the metal thing on the disks) away
from the place where usually the stamps are.
don't use disks you know from, that they have errors or even bad
clusters! nowadays 3,5" disks are not very expensive. throw away
every disk with errors and don't use it again in a sending -- as
you might have guessed, it's very annoying to get such disks.
try to format every disk you want to send properly. although it
may take a lot of time: don't use quick-format, because bad
clusters will not be marked when formatting with this method.
here in germany you can write "vorsicht -- datentrger!" on the
envelope, and they *may* take the letter out of the electronical
processing. it's also possible to write either "bitte nicht
knicken!" or "bitte nicht magnetisieren!" on the envelope to
prevent it from being screwed up.
if you have lots of money, you can also buy padded envelopes.
but i think, that this is really too expensive!
for normal disks you can also build your own padding by folding
some sheets of paper (todays' newspaper will do fine ;) and
putting them together with some staples so that there is enough
space for the disks.
also take a look at "what's the best way to send media xxx?"!
_11__________how can i repair disk errors?__
very difficult and always hard to do! in fact it's nearly
impossible. so try to send your disks without errors and that
the post is not able to kill the disks!
tools like "norton utilities" or "pc-tools" might help, but it
takes a lot of time and it's not worth the work, because the
result is often quite unsatisfying! some archivers have a
repair-option -- sometimes it works (e.g. "pkzipfix.exe" for
"*.zip"-archives).
if you can't recover the whole archive, then don't give it to
your contacts, because some important files might be missing.
_12__________should i answer / write letters along with the
files?__
defintely yes! writing and answering letters belongs close to
the hobby of swapping -- without them, one couldn't get friends
or "real" contacts. in letters you can inform your contacts,
talk about "god and the world" etc. you even needn't write about
computer-related topics only!
in letters you can get a lot of information, and you can learn a
lot about the guys you're swapping with. as already said in the
introduction, you needn't just put a letter onto the disk. what
about some flyers (e.g. for the next computer-party, where you
want to meet your contact), a postcard (btw: this even protects
the disks!) or something different? -- just be creative!
_13__________what's the best way to answer letters
efficiently?__
first of all i should mention, that you should find your own way
of answering letters. try to develop your own personal style. i
do keep all the letters of one week, and try to answer them at
the weekend. i also try, that none of the letters remains
unreplied -- but remember: swappers are just normal human
beings, and you can't expect them to answer in one or two days
(although some guys seem to do that -- respect!). i think up to
1 month of time is enough (also take a look at "what is a
diskstealer?" and "what can i do if i don't get back my
disks?").
first of all i read through the whole letter. then i open it in
my favourite text-editor (do you remember? -- it's "aurora" ;),
remove e.g. the header or other unnecessary stuff and put my
header into the file (yes - into the letter i just received).
then i put a ">" before every line (in "aurora" this can be done
by marking the block and pressing shift+f9, for other editors
you can also write a macro -- otherwise you have a lot of work).
after that, the file should look like that:
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla,
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla!
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
then i answer every important line like that:
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
oh yes? that sounds interesting ;) why don't you write more
about this topic?
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla,
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla!
oh no! not again... how did you do that? why didn't you take
care?
> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
btw: have you been at the neithernor-party organized by sdi?
then i save the file, and put it under any name on the disk
(e.g. "letter.txt"), i want to send (btw: this method is called
"quotation-style" ;).
sometimes i also write a kind of introduction, where i tell how
i'm beeing and where i tell some news about me and / or my group
etc.
as you can see, i prefer lower case in the whole letter, because
it's easier and faster to write. some others use mixed case.
choose whatever you like best -- but never use upper-case only!
it's really hard to read (and means loud crying or shouting).
if you want to stress something in your sentence, then write it
between asterisks: *this part is stressed*.
_14__________which language should i use for my letters?__
that depends on the country where you live in. if you live in an
english-speaking country, the decision is not hard: everybody
with a computer should be able to speak (at least a bit) english
(or he doesn't really use his computer seriously).
if you live in germany or any other non-english-speaking country
and you want to swap with sceners inside your country you can of
course use your native tongue. if you want to swap with someone
from a non-english-speaking country write your first letter in
english and ask him which language he prefers. if this is a
language you speak, then there's no problem, if not, you'll have
to write in english again.
_15__________what's the best way to store the letters?__
there's no solution, that's used by everyone, which means: every
swapper has got his own way of storing the letters. i (beryl)
will present you my way of storing the letters:
first of all, i create a directory called "swapping". this dir
is divided into several countries, such as "poland", "germany",
etc. by creating a subdirectory with the name of the country.
inside this dir, each contact has a seperate directory again.
now i create a file called "briefe.txt" (or "letters.txt") in
which i store the letters in the following way: the first thing
inside such a file is the address and the handle of the contact.
then comes the first letter followed by the first answer. then
comes the second letter with its answer and so on. so the file
looks like this:
file: c:\scene\swapping\germany\stephan swapper\briefe.txt
(windows 95 makes it possible ;)
----------------------------------------------------------------
stephan swapper
scenestreet 95b
62295 village
germany
----------------------------------------------------------------
letter 1:
----------------------------------------------------------------
hello stephan,
.
.
.
see ya soon...
----------------------------------------------------------------
reply 1:
----------------------------------------------------------------
hello beryl,
.
.
.
bye.
----------------------------------------------------------------
if a contact sends me a list of his files or some beta versions
of a selfmade program, i copy them into "his" directory.
i (dentoe) prefer a similar way to store my letters, but i store
every letter in a single file, because processing one huge file
takes quite a long time: the extension ".atx" is for answers and
".txt" is for my replies. the addresses of all my contacts are
stored in just one file that i print out quite regularly (anyone
out there who's able to write a small "addresses-
of-my-contacts-tsr"? ;).
! _16__________what's a standard letter?__
a standard letter actually looks like a usual letter, but it's
not personal, which means it's not written just for you and the
contents also fits for other swappers. swappers, that are in
need of a lot of new contacts write just one big letter, where
they write who they are, what they're doing etc. and send it to
a lot of different guys hoping for answers.
often one can identify a standard letter very fast, because
there's really nothing personal to you in it. there even guys
out there that don't write your name or handle into the letter.
i (dentoe) think that standard letters are really annoying and
just boring to read. it's just not the same -- i always get the
impression, that i'm just a 'software-provider' and not a real
contact or that the other swapper isn't interested in me as a
kind of friend. in my opinion it's better to write just a few
lines of personal text than a huge standard letter.
_17__________what about those converters that make letters look
cooler?__
there are some little programs around (like encool 1.O, kewlizer
by tib or decay's textconverter) which give your textfiles a
different style by using some characters of the extended
ascii-codepage. for example, using encool on the following text
would cause this:
_ before hello dentoe, how are you? thanks for your stuff.
_ after ×äķ ėäļāķä, ×ķw ąēä ķ? ā׹ļk$ ķē ķē $ā.
i (beryl) must admit, that the second text looks "cooler",
however i do not like it, though, because it makes reading of
the text difficult. i always have to think about, what the
current sentence actually means and i think the letter should be
as easy to read, as possible. but this is my personal opinion,
it doesn't represent the general way of thinking, make a survey
if you want to know more ;).
_18__________what makes up a really good swapper?__
that's really a hard question! to be honest, i (dentoe) don't
really know. but i will try to explain, what comes up to my
mind, when i think of a good swapper:
actually he hasn't to be very fast, but he should send a good
mixture between old and new files (or just new stuff). i also
like when someone sends a nice, long and interesting letter, a
postcard from his hometown, a flyer or something similar.
but that's what i like. other people may set great store on e.g.
fast answers or always the latest stuff.
if someone knows a better or another answer to this question,
please say so by contacting me!
! _ fog
there are two things for me (fog) which indicate a cool swapper:
the first thing is new scenestuff. due to the many scene-cds
that i have, someone who sends me old stuff wouldn't bring me a
lot of new things. and if you want to be up to date with the
scene you need the latest stuff.
the second and main aspect of a cool swapper is friendlyness.
someone, who disses every newbie who writes him, harms the scene
and its future. what makes the scene so wounderful for me is the
contact to other freaks -- and friendlyness is the base for
every relationship. so be friendly to everyone and you will get
a lot of contacts and especially a nice feeling that you have
done something good for the sake of the scene.
_19__________what about nicknames and handles?__
a lot of swappers act under a special nickname or handle (e.g.
mine is dentoe). actually it's not really necessary to have a
handle, but i think it helps a bit and it's much easier to
remember for your contacts than your real name.
often the handle has this kind of form: "handle / group", where
group is the scene-group the swapper is in (e.g. i'm part of
"sdi" and "ec").
however, sometimes swappers don't want their handle to be
written on the envelope (e.g. when they write "noe" behind their
handle or in their advertisement ) -- respect this! i don't know
really why, but you should be able to manage that.
_2O__________what's a file_id.diz?__
a "file_id.diz" (short just "diz") is a short description of a
file (usually 4Ox?? characters). you will find nearly all
important information about the contents of an archive in the
file_id.diz. sometimes in creative and weird ways -- but that's
part of the scene.
sometimes there's no file_id.diz in an archive. if you write one
on your own, you can save your friends and some bbs' a lot of
time (but don't try to change the original file_id of an
archive!).
_21__________why should i use a header?__
(coming in the next version of this faq)
_22__________what is a diskstealer?__
a diskstealer is someone who doesn't send your disks back. there
can be several reasons for this: either he has no money for this
expensive hobby or he doesn't like you / your style / stuff or
whatever or he sees that you are a beginner and he doesn't want
to swap with beginners (aka lamers). most often it happens that
you will lose your disks if you send old stuff or worse: empty
disks and no return postage, so that you have to pay for them.
so remember: if you just started swapping and you don't have any
or just few new and good stuff yet, ask your contact, if he
could send you some stuff although you can't send him any and
offer him that you could pay the return postage. it's not his
duty to do this, but: what do you lose when asking him? never
expect this service in advance, because then your contact might
feel used.
_23__________what can i do if i don't get my disks back?__
first of all: don't panic! think of how long you did wait for
the letter! 1, 2 or 3 weeks? that's quite normal and doesn't say
your contact is a so-called diskstealer. there can be lots of
"normal" reasons for the delay (his machine / hd crashed, he has
a lot of work to do, he's still waiting for some good stuff,
he's doing exams, holidays, vacancies, etc.)
! if he still didn't reply your letter, what about phoning him? or
! write a small postcard, to remind him of your letter!
but if you're absoltuly sure you can attend the next party and
beat him up! ;). no -- seriously you have to respect this and i
(beryl) don't think that it's too bad to lose two 3,5" disks. if
you lose a zip-disk (or another more expensive medium) then it's
different.
if he doesn't react on further warnings from you, try informing
other swappers about this case, so that they are warned. a good
idea would be (in germany) to warn him officially by putting an
advert into the "computer-flohmarkt" or in diskmags in which he
puts his swapping-advertises (aka "blacklisting").
_24__________contributors-list__
this is the list of contributors. i want to thank everybody who
helped me with this faq! if you think, i forgot you here, please
get in contact with me!
__name____________|__handle____________|__what__________________
lars beier e6O5 /sdi/sr?/tojs! answered some questions
johannes kleske fog /obnoxious added some small hints
and his opinion about a
good swapper
arne lolischkies -- corrected some mistakes
michael schantin beryl /deranged added questions/answers
and corrected *a lot* of
spelling errors -- tnx!
claus-dieter volko adok /hugi-crew corrected grammatical
mistakes and com-
plemented answers
_25__________legal disclaimer__
this text is copyrighted (c)1998 by robert lischke. all rights
reserved.
no part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted,
transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into
any human or computer language, in any form or by any means;
electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or
otherwise, without the expressed written permission of the
author(s).
the information contained in this text is believed to be
correct. the text is subject to change without notice and does
not represent a commitment on the part of the author(s).
the author(s) do not make a warranty of any kind with regard to
this material, including, but not limited to, the implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose. the author(s) shall not be liable for errors contained
herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection
with the furnishing, performance or use of this material.
(this part was cutted, pasted and slightly modified from t.c.p.s
vga-kurs [tcp_vgak.zip] -- hope he doesn't mind!)
_eof_