Volume 3, Number 4 27 January 1986 +----------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - Fidonews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Publisher: Fido 1/1 Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Review Editor: Allen Miller Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Fidonews is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, Fido 1/1. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in Fidonews. Article submission standards are contained in the file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 1/1. Disclaimer or don't-blame-us: The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them; everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL THINK BEFORE YOU LEAP: About IFNA 2. NEWS Fido's Archive System The latest FIDO distribution list Some more thoughts on Shareware More on "improved" BBS systems GAGS Version 1.06 released A (Possibly) Better Way to POLL 3. WANTED Outgoing Host Accounting System Wanted ! 4. FOR SALE Libertarian E-Mail Directory 5. NOTICES Version 5.0 of ARC released The Interrupt Stack KILLROBT update MENSA National PC-SIG Forming PRGUSERS - Software Update ============================================================ EDITORIAL ============================================================ Tom Jennings 125/1 THINK BEFORE YOU LEAP About IFNA There is a file being sent around attacking the proposed IFNA, or International Fido Net Association. If you haven't seen it yet, you probably will. Please read this in it's entirety. If you don't, then don't even bother to talk to me about it. Even though parties involved have since apologized, serious damage has been done. The authors did not contact any of the people mentioned in the IFNA proposal to ask what was going on. There was no real information in the attack, merely unthinking slanderous paranoia. Please, learning to read implies a responsibility to learn to understand: IFNA is not by any means the commercialization of FidoNet, it does not mean mandatory fees, etc. Please read on. The IFNA project is now somewhat damaged. That was a very preliminary proposal, and way too early for such exposure. It was not meant to be public, it was way too early. They were ideas of the top of our collective heads, as everyone involved realized. What is IFNA, and why? If you have been a FidoNet sysop long enough, you may remember the flap over the net/node reorganization during the summer of 1985. There were complaints that "things are working fine, why mess with it?" The assertion was true, at the time it was running quite smoothly, before we changed it. At that time the net/node changeover, a major upset and organizational change, was made for "the future". You may have noticed that that future is here now; if you will think back, you will realize that the entire nodelist then was smaller than some of today's nets. At that time, the reason for the change was the lack of hierarchy in the network; now we have nets that completely run themselves. Today's FidoNet with almost 700 systems, runs smoother and more efficiently, with less national bureaucracy, than it did two years ago. There has never been, is not now, and if I can help it never will be any sort of ideological or moralistic influences in the net administration. What a sysop does on their board, short of illegal or outright damaging actions, Fidonews Page 2 27 Jan 1986 is totally and completely their own business. This idea was not talked about, merely implemented, and it permeates through the entire organization to this day. Please realize through all of this that the FidoNet, as it exists, is totally and completely decentralized as much as is practical. I don't think that many people realize just exactly what this means, or how it came about. Since FidoNet is totally and completely decentralized, it makes large scale operations and changes difficult to say the least, never mind trying to pull off some coup that no one would cooperate with! Those that designed FidoNet in this fashion are amongst those that understand this fact best. And now, I'll cover some specific points in the attack. I will not grace all of them with comment. The IFNA proposed "membership" does not mean that Fido sysops, users, networks or anyone is forced to pay for anything, period. The "membership fee" is proposed to be for services and goods provided above and beyond what we all have now; seriously, how on earth can anyone in FidoNet make anyone else do anything? To illustrate this fact, pick a node from the node list, far away, where you don't know anybody, and demand that the sysop pay you $50 every year. Good luck. A printed publication mailed to your home costs money. A full or part time employee to maintain the nodelist and other related functions costs money, and yes, things are getting to that point. Once again, because things are moving very smoothly, you normally don't see the effort behind the lines. (I am not talking about myself, I do not have anything whatsoever to do with running the net, thank Ken and Sally Kaplan for most of that.) "Advertising" things such as the radio amateurs' FidoGrams, or individual sysops' services to the deaf is not "exploitation". It is informing people of a service that they probably didn't know existed. And how could we "exploit" a service that we do not perform, and have no control of? FidoGrams and such are done by individual sysops, on their own machines, in their own living rooms. The assumption also was that all efforts here would be done or directed by the people involved in it. Like I said, the proposal was brainstorming, and incomplete. The "magazine" (really just a newsletter, but called "magazine" to avoid confusion with FidoNews) is not meant to compete on the newsstands; it is meant for FidoNet users and sysops, and others only secondarily. Similar to the position of Boys Life to the Boy Scouts of America, if you Fidonews Page 3 27 Jan 1986 are familiar with that. And yes of course it is proposed to have some of the better articles from the electronic FidoNews; ask any potential author if they would object. Compensation and such is yet to be determined, and will depend on income, of course. Like I said before ... I'll be damned if I can think of how having a printed mag could hurt anything, except the ones putting up the dough for printing it. It will explain how new sysops can get started, a list of Fido phone numbers for new and existing users, general interest articles, and infinitely more. As to objections to users "... knowing how economical and easy ...", since FidoNet mail is there, and is the WHOLE POINT of FidoNet, and justification for writing it in the first place, we have an obligation to let non- sysop users know what it is and how to do it. It does not mean you have to do it on your particular board. The attack on "... assigning policy, rules, guidelines and procedures for FidoNet" is foolish; what do you think we do now? The national network time slot, utility programs (LISTGEN, nodelist formats), coordinating FidoNet packet format between the various authors (Fido, SEAdog, Rover/gateway, FIDOUSER, etc etc), generating nodelists, and so on fall into this category. It has to be done, it's done haphazardly now, just ask anyone using the Fido .MSG format about attribute bits. You think this falls from the heavens, fully formed and ready to go? The idea of a FidoNet itself is unlikely as hell, an "International FidoNet Convention" isn't quite so unlikely, since I just came back from one. "Old FidoNews' on diskette or hardcopy, fees to be set." Yes fees, for IFNA to issue them in that form, of course! You can still download them! I don't see why all of a sudden that would just go away. [ed: it wouldn't] Insurance proposals, like I said, this was brain- storming, it may very well turn out to be a waste of time. Just an idea, sorry! However, as far as "working with computer manufacturers to obtain discounts ..." that's not quite the same thing. How many FidoNet sysops have US Robotics Courier 2400's? I'd bet 90% of all the 2400 baud modems you see in the nodelist are USR's. And why? Because USR made the special offer to FidoNet sysops *FIRST*, that's why. It IS a good modem. Are there any objections to that sort of thing in the future? As to the tacky doggie: yes, the artist is quite aware of the proposed deal, since it is me. Except those Fidonews Page 4 27 Jan 1986 who purchased my old FidoNet bumper stickers (hopelessly amateurish) you have not seen the dog. We do not propose to sell ASCII character strings. It may be egotistical, but I'd like to have a Fido sweatshirt, as a matter of fact, I've been asked to make some, so I am anyway. Unlike car insurance, no one will be required to waste their money on one. Junk mail: the proposal says "controlled (ie. voluntary) mailing list". "Political action committee": just an idea, there are people rumbling about this now, IFNA should support it. It is obviously in our interest, there are people there now supporting us, we might as well support them with numbers of organized sysops and users. "... library of FidoNet utilities ..." no, obviously, it does not mean exclusivity. The phrase "BBS DISTRIBUTED" tells it all. Our proposal was for prepackaged diskettes, with docs, to benefit the authors, IFNA, and the customer who did not care to download large amounts of utilities at random to find what they want. More on this later, when the proposal is complete. "To provide a liason between FidoNet and public service activities." To get "... discourage efforts of others ..." from this paragraph is impossible. It just isn't there. "IFNA would be the exclusive distributor of an Authorized Distributor package ...". Right now, Fido Software (me) is the exclusive distributor. If you are not aware of it, I sell Fido/FidoNet to paying customers. And allow it for download. I do not allow others to sell it. My customers are businesses and individuals who do not want to download, or who did for evaluation purposes, and now wish to have the manual and update services. To those who run a Fido as a public service, both individuals and companies, it is free. It has been this way for years; please read POLICY1.DOC. There are other points that I'm just not going to bother to touch. I gave credence to a lot of it be merely mentioning it. That was not my intent at all, but it was unavoidable. Both Ken and I have spent large sums of our own money to help run FidoNet and keep it all together in the last few years, never mind the hundreds of hours of work involved by many, many people in the last few years. Please refer to page INTRO-4 in Fido's Operating Manual. It's just the tip of the iceberg. Fidonews Page 5 27 Jan 1986 IFNA's only task is to run the net independently of any personalities, and take over the many tasks of documenting and running the net. It needs to generate income to pay for it's operation, and to provide the services proposed, not all of which are in the proposal that leaked out. It is not a way for any of us to skim money from any sysops or users of FidoNet, and I am sorry for you if you believe that. Not everyone is out to screw you, this is not a TV show, there is no cloak and dagger business here. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 6 27 Jan 1986 ============================================================ NEWS ============================================================ Jim Black Fido 106/106 Fido's Archive System If you do not have space problems on the hard disk that Fido calls home - this is not for you (go read the next article). If you have trouble keeping hard disk space then FAS is what you need. FAS, can decide with a little help which files on your board are not active and archive those inactive files releasing that valuable space for the next great utility or game or whatever. FAS will read your sysop.log files and extract all downloaded or uploaded files for as far back as you have log files for. These will become your active file. If you desire to keep some files even though they have not been uploaded or downloaded these can be placed in the permanent file and will never be archived. You tell FAS which file areas to look at for archive purposes. All files in those areas will be archived if they are not in the active file or the permanent file. The Archive process will copy the files to diskette then delete the FILES.BBS entry. Don't worry FAS can recover any file once it is archived. All Files archived will have the FILES.BBS description placed in the ARCHIVE file area so that the files can be restored. FAS is menu driven and is complete with hard copy reports. FAS requires an IBM or compatible, 256k of memory, and around 400k of disk space for programs and files. Oh yes, FAS is fast. FAS is distributed under the Freeware concept. Try it, you will love it. Call the following Fido's for more information or to see the ARCHIVE file area and to download your space saver. FIDO'S PARTNER 106/101 713-458-7410 300 - 2400 BLACK STAR 106/106 713-458-5406 300 - 1200 PC-INTERCONNECTION 106/343 713-955-8120 300 - 1200 All three BBS are up 24 hours a day 7 days a week. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 7 27 Jan 1986 FIDO DISTRIBUTION LIST 15 January 1986 This list was compiled from responses to a proposal I submitted to the FIDONEWS. I know there are more distribution nodes than this, but these are the ones that responded. My thanks to those of you listed here. If you are a distribution node, and would like to be added to this list, send the relevant information to the SYSOP on 109/74 - The Bear's Den. I will release updates to this list as new distribution nodes are added. NODE NODE NAME LOCATION PHONE NUMBER Version ---- --------- -------- ------------ ------- 18/19 The Ark Tangent Tampa_FL 813-977-5347 * I 100/10 MDC_RCC, St._Louis_MO 314-232-6881 * D,I 100/22 PC LUG St._Louis_MO 314-576-2743 * D,I 100/51 DECUS Central St._Louis_MO 314-576-4129 * D,I 101/27 Dave's FIDO Gardner_MA 617-632-1861 * All 101/106 NewWorld Magic1 Swampscott_MA 617-595-5626 * I 106/343 PC-Interconnect Houston_TX 713-955-8120 I 106/106 Black_Star Houston_TX 713-458-5406 I 107/312 Dance_Studio E_Brunswick_NJ 201-247-0573 I 109/483 Wash-A-RUG Fairfax_VA 703-359-6549 D,I 109/603 NET-EXCHANGE Reston_VA 703-689-3561 I 114/1 Phoenix Net Phoenix, AZ 602-242-5230 I 122/6 PSG COOS Bay COOS_Bay_OR 503-269-5202 * I 124/12 Inside Track Ed Plano_TX 214-422-4772 I 125/1 Fido's Board San_Francisco_CA 415-864-1418 * All 125/521 Satore Center San_Francisco_CA 415-647-8528 I,V 128/10 The Three Laws Colorado_Spgs_CO 303-574-1110 I 129/11 TACO Sanyo Fido Trafford_PA 412-856-1428 * S 132/107 M'Cycle Bytes Amherst_NH 603-889-3366 * All 135/14 Metro-Fire Fido Miami_FL 305-596-8611 I,S,T,G 3101/1 Fido_Nl1 Ede, Holland +31-8380-37165 I * Supports 2400 Baud FIDO Version: I[BM], D[EC], V[ICTOR], S[ANYO], T[ANDY], G[ENERIC] This version of the list was squeezed a bit, to allow it to fit into the FIDONEWS format. If you would like a full 80 column copy of this list, it may be downloaded from either FIDO 109/74 (The Bear's Den), or FIDO 109/483 (Wash-A-RUG). ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 8 27 Jan 1986 Some more thoughts on Shareware I couldn't help thinking about a problem that confronts those of us who use shareware in an institutional setting when I read the article which mentioned the personal check sent in from an MCI employee. I work for a state university; under state law we must have a bill for everything. Some producers of shareware have formal invoices already enclosed with the documentation; others ask for a donation. I don't know if the latter group doesn't want to appear pushy or what; the fact is that many institutions cannot pay on this basis. A suggestion: include an invoice in your documentation, or on your pop screen that appears when your program is invoked without any parameters. Many of us would like to help out but cannot, at least through our institutions. Bill Allbritten, 11/301 ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 9 27 Jan 1986 An update on what's happening with this brainstorm about a new type of BBS By John Plocher, 121/90 I must have touched a responsive chord somewhere! I've gotten so much responsive mail pertaining to my ideas on a packet interface to remote systems that I guess another Fidonews article is in order! Just a note of warning: I should in NO WAY be considered an expert on this subject, in fact I didn't know a thing about packet networks 6 months ago. If anyone out there knows more about this than I do, please feel free to correct any misconceptions I have! 'Nuff of this humble introduction. On to the meat of this note: There is a "standard" out there concerning packet switched networks called CCITT X.25. This is an international standard which is/should be used by common carrier packet networks (Tymnet, etc). There is a variant of this protocol called X.PC, which is X.25 for micros. It was developed by McDonald Douglas/Tymshare, the parent companies of Tymnet. The protocol specifications and related documentation is available for no charge from: X.PC Protocol Specification (Version 2.1) Tymnet/McDonald Douglas Network Systems 2710 Orchard Parkway San Jose, CA 95134 Tymnet also has a complete implementation for the IBM PC, including source, object, and documentation on an IBM PC disk for $20.00 - See the documentation BEFORE you send money! I have requested all of the above materials, they should be here by the end of January (1986, I hope). X.PC specifically implements the NETWORK and DATA layers of the ISO-OSI model. At this point I need to clarify some points. These have to do with what comes to mind when using the terms "BBS" and "interface". I am working on developing a packet level interface which could be used to implement a new type of BBS, or other remote access system. Any BBS has to have some sort of interface to the remote user; right now Fido uses a character level interface for user I/O and a packet level interface for file transfer. I'd like to implement an interface which is 100% packet level, 100% of the time. Since the current generation of BBS's are designed around a single channel character level interface, a new BBS would have to be written to take advantage of the multi- channel packet interface. Thus the notion of a new BBS. The issue of security has some relevance here, too. Fido was designed to be a 100% secure system. That means that even if a user would upload FORMAT.COM, s/he could NEVER execute it. It also means that the user can never get Fidonews Page 10 27 Jan 1986 past the Fido software interface and into the operating system (The Sysop can, though, with the 0 command). The result is that the users are limited to whatever features Fido cares to let them use. RCP/M systems on the other hand are typically not secure systems, because the user has the ability to execute programs in addition to the usual message oriented BBS commands. It should be obvious that the issue of security has little to do with the interface used to do I/O with the user. Fido and RCP/M both use character level I/O; it is what they do with it which determines the security of the system. The ideas I am interested in ignore the issue of security completely (at least for now), and propose a packet level interface to the system which would be a replacement for the character level interface used by Fido and RCP/M. (UNIX people will note that UUCP, CU, and TIP also have a packet type interface, instead of a character level interface. In the case of CU, the packet interface is used in such a way as to give the impression to the user of being a character interface.) If security is desired (and it will be for ANY type of BBS), it would have to be added on top of this packet interface in the same was as it is added to current systems on top of the character level interface. Note also that I have avoided mentioning anything about the physical connection to the packet interface. In many cases, it would be a RS-232 async link through a modem, but it could also be a synchronous bi-sync link to another local system, or a connection to a LAN, etc. The beauty of the packet interface is that it doesn't matter how the packets actually get from place to place, as long as they get there. They don't even have to get there undamaged, cuz the interface takes care of requesting a new packet if it finds a damaged one. I have also gotten a few responses about my mention of Wendin's PCUNIX and their Operating Systems Toolbox. I am still (1/13/86) waiting for my copy of PCUNIX, but I have the OST and PCVMS. For those of you who like VMS on a DEC VAX, PCVMS is quite similar. It is truly multi-user and multi-tasking; I don't like VMS, and I liked PCVMS. These products are only available for the IBM family (PC,XT,AT), but quite a few people here in southern Wisconsin have been pestering Wendin to port it to the Rainbow, so if you pester them too... Anyways, back to the topic, I am working with Wendin in developing X.PC as a network interface to the OST. This is a necessary first step in implementing all of X.PC, if the virtual circuit ideas are to be implemented at all. (The multi-tasking is vital!) Getting more into the ideas of a BBS system, specifically conferencing systems, David Dyer-Bennet, the Sysop of 14/341 (The Terraboard) had some interesting comments about how to present an understandable view of a discussion tree to the user. At a minimum, the user would Fidonews Page 11 27 Jan 1986 have to be able to see an overview of all the conferences, as well as details on individual conferences, all the way down to the actual messages. His conclusions are that ideas used in the outline processors now available could be used to present an outline of a discussion; allowing the user to increase or decrease the amount of detail displayed. I'm getting a bit long winded here, so I'm going to call it quits for now, but if the response to these ideas keeps up I'll have to write more... (And I thought I was a programmer, not an author!) John Plocher 121/90 ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 12 27 Jan 1986 Version 1.06 of the Generic Adventure Game System released! ----------------------------------------------------------- [Background: The Generic Adventure Game System is an adventure-game development system for 256K MS-DOS computers. It allows you to create your own computer adventure games using a fairly simple syntax and a standard text editor. GAGS 1.0 was released as Shareware in late August, and the previous version, 1.05, was released in October.] -- Mark J. Welch, sysop, Fido 125/459 I have finally finished adding features to the Generic Adventure Game System, and have also released an interactive editor which allows game writers to view and alter room, noun, and creature definitions. Alas, I am unable (or unwilling) to commit to future enhancements, because I plan to divert my energies to other projects. I will soon be delving into Modula-2 (GAGS was written in Turbo Pascal) and may decide to redesign GAGS in that language, but I can't promise anything, since I have several other projects in mind as well. I will, of course, correct any bugs that may be noticed in GAGS, but currently do not plan to add new features for a long time, if ever. GAGS has progressed somewhat since its initial release in August. For example, Everard Cheney, sysop of the Fantasy Factory of Pacifica, CA (415-355-6047, Fido 125/applied) wrote an interactive editor useful to enter new room, creature, and noun information. In response to his inspiration, I wrote another editor which is more useful in examining and making minor changes to existing games (and games in various stages of development after startup). Both of those editors are included, along with the GAGS "engine" program, a sample game, and extensive documentation, in GAGS_106.ARC, a 279K file. (GAGS_106.ARC also includes the ARC452.DOC file since I've discovered that no one bothers to download it when they download ARC452.EXE from my board). The 279K file expands to about 450K, so it won't all fit on one 360K floppy disk. GAGS was reviewed favorably in the December 6, 1985 issue of *MicroTimes*, a tabloid publication distributed in California. I've not heard of any other reviews, but would appreciate feedback if someone notices a review in a publication. I sent out a bunch of review copies to magazines I don't subscribe to. As before, I also offer the program on disk for $10 (including postage), and will put a copy of the GAGS_106.ARC file in the mail to any sysop who sends me a disk and postpaid return mailer. Since it's Shareware, I encourage people who find the program useful to become registered users by sending me a $15 contribution. Registered users may also elect to buy the complete source code (in Turbo Fidonews Page 13 27 Jan 1986 Pascal) for $25 (including postage). A note on Shareware returns: For those who are curious, Shareware contributions have not been very substantial for GAGS. I hadn't expected much, of course, but I am most irritated by people who call with support questions and start off with a lie: "I'm sending you a check for registration, and I think GAGS is great, but how do you...." After about a dozen of those calls, I received one of the promised checks. I've received a number of other checks in the mail, but my expenses still outweigh my income by more than an order of magnitude. I doubt I'll elect to distribute my next product as Shareware. Another irritation: I've received at least five phone calls from people who complain that the program doesn't work. My immediate response is, "Did you read the READ.ME file?" and the answer has always been "no" since the READ.ME file explains why the program won't work unless CONFIG.SYS has upped the number of files. [Note: A bug in version 1.06 was discovered: the game's introductory text was not displayed. This bug has been fixed in version 1.06a. That bug did not effect the game in any other way. mjw, 1-17-86] Changes from version 1.05 to 1.06 01-13-86 of the Generic Adventure Game System MJW ------------------------------------- There are three new features in version 1.06 of GAGS. GAGS 1.06 is now finished. Included with it in the 279K ARC file is EDITGAME 1E, an interactive room/noun/creature editor. 1) Verb synonyms I have not added User-definable verbs, but I've come halfway. You can now define a new verb as a synonym of an existing verb. For example, suppose you want the user to be able to type "inspect" instead of examine. In the .DAT file, you include a verb redefinition as follows: VERB EXAMINE INSPECT END_VERB During the game, any time the player types "inspect" as a verb, it will be translated to "examine." You may only map one synonym to each verb. You may include several redefinitions in a single VERB...END_VERB entry, but each pair of verbs must be on a separate line. 2) Winning a game Fidonews Page 14 27 Jan 1986 Okay, I give in. There is now a way to win the game. There is a now a new ROOM attribute called GAME_WIN, which indicates that the player wins the game when s/he enters the room, regardless of points held. The ROOM_DESCR information is displayed, so you should use the ROOM_DESCR information to present the game winner with praise, etc. 3) Creature time threshholds For those who think the creatures are too tame, here's a quick fix. The normal "THRESHHOLD" value indicates how many times the player has to attack a creature with the wrong weapon before the creature attacks and kills the player. Now, there is a new attribute called TIME_THRESH, which is the number of turns after the player enters a room before the creature kills the player. Setting this to 1 would be instant death. If you do not specify a TIME_THRESH value, the player need not be concerned about time. To set a time threshhold, put the line TIME_THRESH n in the creature definition, where n is the number of turns the player has to try to defeat the creature. I strongly advise that you use a number like 7 or 8, for this. ------ Note 1: Version 1.05 of GAGS fixed a bug in the way creatures acted. In earlier versions, friendly creatures blocked exits; the change allows players to exit rooms without killing friendly creatures. ------ Note 2: Yes, GAGS runs on any MS-DOS computer. I've not had firm feedback on 1.06, but 1.05 was confirmed to run on the Sanyo 555, the TI Professional, the DEC Rainbow, an S-100 system with an 8086 card, and on the PCjr and a large number of IBM-compatibles. While I describe it as a 256K program, it runs fine in a 192K partition under DESQview. ------ Note 3: "The opinions expressed in this article are my own, and are not the opinions of my employer. Mark J. Welch 415-564-1066 voice P.O. Box 2409 415-664-2811 BBS San Francisco, CA 94126 Fido 125/459 * GAGS and The Generic Adventure Game System are trademarks of Mark J. Welch. All program and documentation for GAGS Fidonews Page 15 27 Jan 1986 are Copyright 1985, 1986 by Mark J. Welch. All rights reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 16 27 Jan 1986 A (Possibly) Better Way to POLL by Bob Hartman Sysop Fido 132/101 The UN*X Gateway and Home of Rovermsg How many FIDO sysops out there have been having a hard time using the new FIDO command POLL? From personal experience I know that it is more than just a few of us. I have devised what I think is a slightly more robust way to use this feature, so let me share it with you. First of all, this method is for use when you are only supposed to poll on certain days (for example, Saturday you are supposed to poll for the NODELIST). The problems with POLL usually have to do with the fact that to POLL only on a certain day, you have to create a different FidoNet schedule which just gets executed on that day, and has the proper POLL statement in the ROUTE. file. To say the least, this is a real hassle. My solution is to simply not use the POLL statement at all!!! I know that this sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. I propose only using the PICKUP keyword. Place this in your normal ROUTE. file, in place of the POLL. Then on the days when you are supposed to POLL, simply use ROBOT to create a dummy message, with a dummy file attached to avoid the normal message routing (I use the message "Just to let you know I picked-up the xxxxxxxxxx file"). What does this do? Well, all of a sudden you have a message going to the node you wanted to POLL. This causes your board to call that node, and since you have PICKUP in your route file, your node will attempt to PICKUP the mail for you. The two methods are equivalent in that either way you get the mail you were supposed to get. The differences are subtle, but *VERY* important: 1. Using the PICKUP method you will transfer one message which will actually appear on the receiving board. This is a minor drawback in my opinion. 2. Using the PICKUP method you do not have to run separate FidoNet schedules on different nights (and hence not have to pull your hair out trying to find out which one executes first!). 3. This is the biggie --- Using the PICKUP method, your board will continue to try to do the pickup every night until it succeeds!!! Since you have a message destined for the other node, Fido knows whether or not the transfer succeeded. If it was unsuccessful (phone busy, other node off-line, etc.), then the next night it will try again. This is the major advantage of this method. I find it very useful, and wish that some of the nodes Fidonews Page 17 27 Jan 1986 polling my board would implement it (HINT, HINT). It means that if you miss a poll, the message will not get duplicated the following week, and have two of them waiting in the queue. Since the files people are polling me for are about 100K long, this advantage becomes very important. Who wants to pay to transfer the same 100K file twice in one session??? Anyway, I have been using this method myself for about a month. It took me that long to convince myself that this method had no drawbacks and did work at least as well as POLL. I hope this helps others that are having problems missing scheduled POLLs. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 18 27 Jan 1986 ============================================================ WANTED ============================================================ David Dodell, Sysop Fido 114/15 I am looking for some type of accounting system that could be used by an outgoing host to keep record of what systems are sending messages. This would enable the outgoing host to "bill" the other nodes for usage. Anyone have something like this already written? If so can you please send mail to David Dodell, Sysop at 114/15. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 19 27 Jan 1986 ============================================================ FOR SALE ============================================================ Daniel Tobias, FIDO 129/13 Thanks to all who responded to my request for electronic mail addresses of Libertarians (those individuals who believe in personal and economic freedom and drastically-limited government). If you wish to be listed in this directory, this is your last chance, as the deadline to be included in the first edition is January 31, 1986. The LIBERTARIAN E-MAIL DIRECTORY should be ready for shipping by mid-February. This guide contains an alphabetic listing of Libertarians who are reachable by electronic mail, giving their addresses on various systems and networks such as FidoNet, CompuServe, Delphi, ARPAnet, UUCP, BITnet, et cetera. Also included is other information such as the organizations in which these people are involved, their special interests, and any other such information they chose to provide. If you are a Libertarian, this directory will help you start pen-pal correspondence, exchange ideas, and promote informal networking with like-minded people. If you are not a Libertarian at present, but are interested in knowing more about libertarianism or the Libertarian Movement, you may find people in this directory who would be happy to answer your questions through electronic correspondence. The LIBERTARIAN E-MAIL DIRECTORY is a must for anybody who uses computerized communications and is interested in libertarianism. You can order this valuable reference guide now, by sending $5 to: Daniel Tobias, 4730 Centre Ave. Apt. 212, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. This price is postpaid. The LIBERTARIAN E-MAIL DIRECTORY will be shipped to you by first class mail immediately after it is printed, by mid-February. Act now, to get this directory hot off the press! ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 20 27 Jan 1986 ============================================================ NOTICES ============================================================ ARC 5.0 Released New Features! Up To 23% Faster! Up To 10% Smaller! System Enhancement Associates is pleased to announce the release of version 5.0 of ARC. The new version includes the following enhancements: o Dynamic Lempel-Zev coding with adaptive reset. o Path support on ALL commands! o Improved error recovery on corrupted archives. o Improved and expanded documentation. o Archive encryption. o And more! ARC 5.0 is available for download from Fido 107/7, or on disk by sending a check or money order for $50 to: System Enhancement Associates 21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470 ------------------------------------------------------------ The Interrupt Stack 3 Feb 1986 Space Symposium at Disney World, Orlando, Florida. Contact Harold Gray at node 145/1 for more details. 9 Feb 1986 Halley's Comet reaches perihelion. 9 Feb 1986 Diana Overholt (109/74) has another birthday. 1 Mar 1986 European mail hour shifts to 0230-0330 GMT. Summer time will no longer be observed. 11 Apr 1986 Halley's Comet reaches perigee. 19 May 1986 Steve Lemke's next birthday. Fidonews Page 21 27 Jan 1986 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to Fido 1/1. ------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Butler, sysop FIDO 17/0 (aka 138/3) KILLROBT v2.0 is now out. Included is a version compiled under GENERIC TURBO 3.0. This version is more in tune with the need to run in batch mode. The list of deleted messages can now be redirected (via DOS) to a file. The repeated prompts for a valid path are no longer done. The program terminates with an error message. Further enhancement requests should be sent to FIDO 17/0 c/o Steve Butler. Thank you for your encouragement. PS: For those of you who use ROBOT to distribute files for PICKUP by others and must manually delete those who weren't (as in the weekly NODELIST); KILLROBT will help you automate that function. ------------------------------------------------------------ Leo Cotnoir Node 109/612 MENSA National PC-SIG Forming We are interested in the possibility of forming a national MENSA PC-SIG (general Personal Computing, rather than limited to IBM PC). If anyone on FidoNet belongs to an existing local MENSA computing SIG, or would wish to participate in a national SIG (you must be a MENSA member), please let us know. Among the activities we envision is a MENSANet. Other ideas are welcome. Please reply by FidoMail to me or Jim Kay at 109/612 ------------------------------------------------------------ Software Update *************** Program : PRGUSERS Version : 1.3 Date : Jan 18, 1986 Fidonews Page 22 27 Jan 1986 Reason : PC-DOS 3.1 using SHARE Thanks to Gee Wong (Fido 107/312) a major bug has been corrected in PRGUSERS. The problem would crash the program under PD-DOS 3.1 while using the SHARE utility. If you are using PRGUSERS and plan on using SHARE, or already are using SHARE and see that PRGUSERS does not run, version 1.3 will run under this envionment. Version 1.3 is available on Dec_Ware II, Fido 107/2 (201) 750-3748 ------------------------------------------------------------ Fidonews Page 23 27 Jan 1986