Volume 4, Number 40 2 November 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Dave Lovell, Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1987 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 FidoNews is Back on the Air! ............................. 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 3 Fee-Paid Systems Revisited ............................... 3 Open Letter about National Family Forum .................. 6 Shrinking the Node List .................................. 7 U.S. Robotics, Hayes to Share High-Speed Modem Technolo .. 8 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 9 Origin: Angevin Empire ................................... 9 4. NOTICES .................................................. 11 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 11 Latest Software Versions ................................. 11 FidoNews 4-40 Page 1 2 Nov 1987 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= FidoNews is Back on the Air! Sorry for the recent interruption, gang. Our glorious 90 meg drive (I've since discovered that we're pikers in the disk space game -- one sysop I know told me he has a 120 meg drive!) rolled over and died, making horrible noises along the way and taking all our .BAT files with it. We got it replaced quickly, but the new drive kept finding new bad sectors, on the order of a dozen or so a day. Then I had to leave for two weeks, and didn't have time to fix it before going. But now I'm back, and another new drive was waiting for me. It's now installed and tested, and is looking solid. If I reconstruc- ted all the files properly, you might even get this issue on time (crossed fingers). While the new drive is smaller than the old (77 meg versus 90 meg), it is also a half-height where the old drive was a full- height, so we can add another 77 meg any time we need it. With that much storage, I think we'll be able to keep a full set of FidoNews back issues online for quite awhile to come. In other news, we've added two sections to FidoNews -- Minutes and Committee Reports. These come after the notices, and it is our intention that IFNA business articles will go in those sections so that readers uninterested in what IFNA is doing can stop reading once they reach the notices and thus not be bothered. Now the bad news. Dave Dodell asked me to write an article explaining zones, particularly how to use the zone gates and how all the pieces fit together. So I spent a couple of days writing it all down. You guessed it -- it was lost in the disk crash. I really hate rewriting stuff, and I'm still trying to catch up from my two week absence, so. . . The only REALLY important thing in the article dealt with XlatList modes of operation. We goofed up in the XlatList docs for the latest version and never described the changes. The latest XlatList can generate output in any of three "modes", as follows: 1) SEAdog mode This produces a NODELIST.BBS for your own zone only, with hubs left in. 2) FIDO mode This produces a NODELIST.BBS for Fido v12, which gives all zones and retaines the ZONE prefixes. 3) OPUS mode This produces a NODELIST.BBS for your own zone only, with hubs not in your own net removed, and with the node list comment flags retained. Some folks running Opus or Fido 11w got the latest XlatList and FidoNews 4-40 Page 2 2 Nov 1987 started running it in FIDO mode (which used to be correct), and got a NODELIST.BBS that their software could not handle. They should now use OPUS mode. I'll try to find time to rewrite that article one of these days. There are some other projects underway that should make for interesting reading. Al Arango is now in the process of interviewing the IFNA Board of Directors, and will be publishing a series of articles introducing you to them. We're also working with Don Daniels on getting timely status reports from the plethora of committees for this and that. And of course, we're always ready, willing, and eager to hear from you. We're back up and rolling, so keep those articles coming! Remember, FidoNews is YOUR newsletter! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 3 2 Nov 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Andre Franklin, 381/20 Fee-Paid Systems Revisited Another look an an old gripe I would like to respond to Bill Paul's article in the Sept 28, 1987 issue of the Fido News, dealing with Fee Paid systems. I run Plato's Retreat in El Paso, Texas, and I consider it to be a free system. I allow almost all callers access, I do not require a fee, but I do strongly request (NOT require) donations to help me pay for the expenses related to this bbs. I would like to take very strong exception to a part of Mr. Paul's article, and that is where he equates asking for donations with "fee paid boards," or boards that are in the business to make money. I can also understand sysops who require people to pay a fee to access their boards, or at least to pay a fee to access a part of their boards, when they do it to help offset the expenses of running the board. I have been a sysop of various boards using various software programs for about 6 years now. I have been through BBS PC, PCBoard, RBBS, and now Opus. Across the board (no pun intended) I have had very high numbers of callers from across the United States, Canada, and Europe, and I attribute this fact to my ability to run a good board as well as to the amount of time I invest in it. The former is a talent and cannot be measured, while the latter translates to about 3 hours every day, plus another 2 to 3 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays. I do not think that in this I am different from thousands of other sysops worldwide. In terms of equipment, I have an XT (soon to be upgraded to a 386) with a 40 Megabyte Hard Drive, a 1200 baud modem (soon 2400, as soon as I can get the initialization strings to work), and a 300 cps printer, all dedicated to the board, ie not used for any other applications. My monthly telephone bill JUST for the line used for the board exceeds $250. Although this is by no means a lot of equipment or especially expensive, in comparison with some of the sysops I know, I am mentioning it to illustrate that sysops go to quite considerable expenses for their hobby. I understand that Mr. Paul has done the same, and I am happy for him that he can afford to run it all out of his own pocket. I understand that there are some very wealthy people who invest substantial amounts of money to see that Fido is a truly international efford. The vast bulk of sysops, I venture to say however, are not independently wealthy and cannot afford to pay from $250 to over $1000 a month in some cases month after month after month. FidoNews 4-40 Page 4 2 Nov 1987 I realize that this is a hobby. I do not believe that there are a lot of sysops who are in this for the money. But callers also get something out of it. They too participate in the message bases, they too laugh and argue and pound the keyboard in frustration. This is not a one way street for anyone, sysop or caller. Contrary to popular opinion, very few sysops are in this to get easy copies of pirated software, and public domain software can be obtained by anyone, even without going to the trouble of dedicating $2,000 to $10,000 worth of hardware and software to the task 24 hrs a day. If we agree that this is indeed a two way street, the callers should become aware that it is at least their moral obligation to share in the expenses, and not only to reap the benefits paid for out of the sysop's personal funds. There is one more aspect to this which ought to be addressed. In 6 years of sysopping, there is little that frustrates me more - and I venture to say that most sysops feel this way - than to have a caller call for the first time, and the second, and the third, and so on, just to download, and download, and download. He doesn't leave a message, doesn't introduce himself, and when he is confronted by a sysop who asks him "Hi, how would you like to upload some of YOUR things to us?" he displays a self righteous demeanor and acts as though it is his god-given birthright to rape and pillage every bbs that his modem can reach - even with stolen MCI codes, if he can get them, but that is another story - without any obligation, duty, or debt to the sysop or to the other callers. This is a behavior pattern shared by the same people who oppose contributing reasonable amounts of money to help with the expenses of something that is their hobby as much as the sysop's. Not surprising is the fact that those who donate money also seem to be those who upload consistently, while those who don't donate anything also don't tend to upload, unless they are forced to do so with ratios and other unfriendly tactics. And then Mr. Paul reinforces this behavior pattern with his statement "The callers ... don't owe me anything; in fact I owe THEM more than I could ever begin to express." It is sysops like Mr. Paul who, to a substantial part, cause sponges, and leeches, and whatever else we want to call them. I used to have a questionnaire in which I asked "How do you feel about paying a small amount of money to help with the expenses of this bbs?" and I still recall vividly MANY answers that said something like "Why should I pay anything? There are many bbs out there that are free, and as long as they are there, I will not pay." In effect they are telling me: "I will use you for everything I can get out of you. When you get tired of it, or can't afford it anymore, then I will use someone else. And I will keep using them until there is nobody left to use." And then Mr. Paul asks me, and other readers of his article, the question: "I'd be interested in knowing ... what you offer users that is unavailable elsewhere for free." An education in manners, Mr. Paul, that is what I would like to offer them. FidoNews 4-40 Page 5 2 Nov 1987 Mr. Paul feels that charging a fee obligates him to the callers. Does it really? There is a school of thought that goes something like this: If a caller spends a substantial amount of time and effort in participating in a conference, especially if he calls long distance, then it is the host's obligation to ensure that the conference is not abruptly stopped because of the negligence of the host. Thus, the host takes a certain responsibility to back up his system and to try to reactivate the board in case of a crash within a reasonable time period. I do not argue with this, and in over 6 years my board has not had any unscheduled and unannounced downtimes that lasted longer than 24 hrs. But how does it change this obligation if the hosts says "Hey guys, this is costing me a lot of money. How about if you chip in to help me pay the bills?" This is no more a "profit" than if I offer to give someone a ride to a city 100 miles away, to which I am going anyway, if I ask the rider to help me pay for the gas. And to clear up a misunderstanding: The IRS is not interested in your income, it's interested in your profits! I hope I make my point clear. I too welcome comments, which you may send to 381/20 (directly, or if you have problems sending it, route it through 381/1). You may also call directly to (915) 545-2752 or mail any replies, comments, questions, or whatever by US Mail to Plato's Retreat BBS, 6112 N. Mesa, Suite 103, El Paso, TX 79912. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 6 2 Nov 1987 Anton Johnson National Family Forum 161/56 Open Letter about National Family Forum Dear Sysops and Bulletin Board Friends, Several days ago I was slandered through the entry of messages into Fido mail that were considered to be of a an unethecial and offensive nature. There were a individuals that were very supportive to me during this attack. I wish to thank you for your support! It greatly encouraged me. For those of you that do not know me I wish to provide you with a short background on myself and my BBS I have been a System Operator (Sysop) for over 6 1/2 years. It has been my policy that message or file content that may be considered to be offensive to users is not permitted on my system. I run a semi open system. New users are granted full access to the system witin 24 hours after their first phone call. New users are not required to register unless they want to. In addition new users are not required to pay any fees to access the NFF. The NFF operates using The Bread Board System BBS software. To share in Fidonet I use Seadog. There is an open reward that is offered on my system. If anyone can crash my system, tell me how they did it and it is not caused by an error on my part in the way I configure my system I pay out $100 dollars. During the period of time that I have operated TBBS no one has yet to collect that reward. No one has ever crashed my system and they have not obtained entry to the system using my Sysop userlog entry. Many have tried without success. The National Family Forum is a family oriented system. It also is a Christian BBS. I can assure everyone that the offensive messages that carried the name of my system and my name did not originate on the National Family Forum. It is my personal policy that when offensive messages appear on my system from my users that I remove them as soon as they are seen. It is also my policy that if individuals that use Fido Net enter offensive messages into the system that I kill all messages from them in the future. If I feel it is warranted I will send Net-Mail to that person on the node the message originated on. I no longer "flame" individuals in echo mail. Most individuals do not want to read such private messages and it does nothing to directly improve message content in Echo Mail. Sincerely Yours, Anton Johnson National Family Forum Sysop ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 7 2 Nov 1987 Eric Ewanco, 1:130/3 Shrinking the Node List In October 5th's issue of FidoNews, there was a column by Aaron Priven about shrinking the nodelist, and although I highly respect his purpose, I must comment on his proposed methods. First of all, removing the name of the board is totally ridiculous. When I read a message, I like to know what board it's from. I do not work by numbers, I work by names! I cannot immediately recognize that 125/111 is Fido Software, or that 109/639 is Renex BBS. In addition, when it's calling, I'd like to know then and there if I entered the right number. As for the Sysop name, and for SEAdog's USERLIST feature, I use it all the time and it is the primary feature of SEAdog that I miss in Opus. It is SO annoying to have to remember someone's node number; or, if I don't know them, I just like to say, "I want to send a letter to Bob Hartman, wherever he is." SEAdog can oblige. I don't want to have to look it up. In fact, I _couldn't_ if we removed the names. As for the flags, I would like to know who has SEAdog or equivalent, although it's not that important. But, some boards are "Mail Only" (mine, except for a very few people) and don't want people picking their name off the nodelist without knowing that I won't be accepting human callers. We can shorten them to one character, tho. The least useful field is the city/state, but I still think it should be kept. I agree with shortening the baud rate to about one character (1[200], 2[400], 3[00], 4[800], 9[600]) and I also believe that hex numbers would be faster to convert and would take up less space. We could shorten !_Unpublished to just !, and for gosh sake, WHY is the nodelist distributed with 1- added to the number? We could save 4k right there! End of line characters: CR/LF is convenient for C, but ... if we made it LF it could be handled WITHOUT text mode conversion and would be faster to operate on. For those who need to edit by hand, we COULD conceivable make a utility for conversion. This would only save about 2k, though. Or is that significant? Some fields could be made fixed, and we can eliminate some of the commas. Or, we could write some fields in BINARY format (node/net) or packed decimal (phone). But then writing or maintaining a private nodelist would be difficult. Thus is my rebuttle. Comments should be directed to: Eric Ewanco, SEAdog/Opus 1:130/3.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 8 2 Nov 1987 U.S. Robotics, Hayes to Share High-Speed Modem Technology Skokie,Ill.,October 21 -- Modem industry leaders Hayes Microcomputer Products,Inc., and U.S.Robotics, Inc., will share proprietary, high-speed modem technology under terms of a newly- signed cross-licensing agreement. The pact could lead both companies to manufacture signal- compatible modems operating at 9600 bps and higher speeds, potentially boosting a market that cautiously has awaited a standard technology for competing products. Despite the agreement, however, U.S. Robotics said that is has no immediate plans to manufacture modems employing Hayes' technology. U.S. Robotics, based here, has gained a license to manufacture modems using Hayes' proprietary error-control protocol and modulation technique currently implemented in Hayes' 9600- and 2400-bps V-Series modems. Hayes, of Norcross, Ga., becomes a licensee of U.S. Robotics' proprietary high-speed modem tecnolgy used in its 9600-bps Courier HST modem. The agreement also includes cross-licensing of any new inventions by both companies during the next three years. "This agreement also gives us more technological flexibility in responding to potential demand for certain features and capabilities," said U.S. Robotics President Casey Cowell. "Any future enhancements to the Courier HST that derive from this agreement will be appropriate to meeting market demand and anticipating long-term market development," Cowell continued. "We intend in any future versions of the Courier HST to maintain operational compatibility with all previously sold HST modems." Both companies declined to declined to reveal terms of the cross- licensing agreement. For Immediate Release Contact: Mark Smith 312-982-5001 US Robotics, Inc. 8100 North McCormick Blvd. Skokie,IL 60076 ***Original Press Release sent to IFNA FidoNews Editor*** ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 9 2 Nov 1987 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= O r i g i n : A n g e v i n E m p i r e Issue #5: Public Domain for More than Software Aaron Priven (1:125/1154) Deadlines? We don't have no deadlines. We don't need no deadlines! We don't need no stinking deadlines! ------- Lately there has been a move toward placing Matrix software into free distribution, with source code distributed too. I'm not going to get into this subject very far, but I really am glad to see it happen. I love the idea of the Matrix as a free source of information. The idea of all of us helping the common good, more for everybody, is perhaps one of the best things that could have happened in the Age of Information that John Naisbitt and other futurists are always talking about. I don't know if we can make a real difference in the rest of the world, but I hope that our concepts of free distribution extend themselves to others -- not just that others may join the net and take part in it, but that people may discover that free distribution is good for *all* media -- not just computery ones. Now I'm not suggesting that everybody de-copyright their books and music and let everybody have it for free -- just as I wouldn't suggest that everyone de-copyright their software and put it on BBS's. What I am saying is that there is a lot of information out there that has always been absolutely free -- but inaccessible. Take an example close to my heart (or my stomach). In 1977 a friend of mine who happens to be my mother compiled a cookbook called "Family Cooking" -- she took recipes from all her aunts, cousins, sisters-in-law, and other relatives, and put it all in a 150-page book which she basically made herself. She typed it out on an IBM Executive typewriter, and printed it a local copy shop. It turned out really nice, but she made no more than twenty copies -- all of which went to our relatives. Why didn't we give it away to other people? How could we? We would have had to buy the paper, which would have cost money, and if we'd tried to sell it we would have had to make a very risky investment, which we simply were not prepared to make. (And realistically, there are so many cookbooks out that "just another homestyle cookbook" would have had no chance at a publisher.) So fifteen copies are in the hands of our relatives, and we have five copies left, and the rest of the people in the world are stuck. So this year we're thinking about updating it. We'd take advantage of newer technology, and desktop-publish it in high FidoNews 4-40 Page 10 2 Nov 1987 style. We would also release the text of it into free distribution. We can now do this -- all we have to do is take the text, convert it to ASCII (which it will be in anyway), ARC it and file-attach it to various BBS's. That's all it takes now to give something away free. Big difference from 1977. The point of this column is to get the rest of you thinking about things like that. Maybe you're a leech type who would like to contribute, but can't because you can't write a line of code. You don't have to! If you can write a story, or a poem, or relate an anecdote, or anything along that line, then you are perfectly well off; a good story is at least as good as the latest user-supported arcade game. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 11 2 Nov 1987 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 14 Nov 1987 The First New England Sysop Conference, to be held at the Lederle Graduate Research Center, 16 Floor University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Contact Mort Sternheim at 1:321/109 for details. 7 Dec 1987 Start of the Digital Equipment Users Society meeting in Anaheim, CA. Contact Mark Buda at 1:132/777 for details. 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 FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.70a* EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 Fido 12d* MakeNL 1.10 ARCmail 1.1* Opus 1.03a Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.2* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.84 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1* * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 12 2 Nov 1987 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (jm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. ** Name _________________________________ Date ________ Address ______________________________ City & State _________________________ Country_______________________________ Phone (Voice) ________________________ Net/Node Number ______________________ Board Name____________________________ Phone (Data) _________________________ Baud Rate Supported___________________ Board Restrictions____________________ Special Interests_____________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Is there some area where you would be willing to help out in FidoNet?_______ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to: International FidoNet Association P. O. Box 41143 St Louis, Missouri 63141 USA Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to insure the future of FidoNet. ** Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the membership in January 1987. The first elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input on this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-40 Page 13 2 Nov 1987 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we can make no written guarantees. IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ Special offers for IFNA members ONLY: System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member. Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $65.00 _____ ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member. As of November 1, 1987 price will increase to $100. Orders including checks for $65 will be returned after October 31, 1987. SUBTOTAL _____ Missouri Residents add 5.725 % Sales tax _____ International orders include $5.00 for surface shipping or $15.00 for air shipping _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO: IFNA P.O. Box 41143 St. Louis, Missouri 63141 USA Name________________________________ Net/Node____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------