Volume 5, Number 38 19 September 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: 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 1988 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. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and are used with permission. 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 ................................................ 1 A Call for Articles ...................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Fredric L. Rice Warns of Nuclear Disasters ............... 4 SEA Policy on ARC ........................................ 6 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 9 Let's YACK about BBS Utilities ........................... 9 4. NOTICES .................................................. 10 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 10 Latest Software Versions ................................. 11 5. COMMITTEE REPORTS ........................................ 12 Thanks to Greater Cincinnati Sysop Association ........... 12 FidoNews 5-38 Page 1 19 Sep 1988 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= A call for articles For the past several months, the bulletin board community has been filled with discussions on the recent SEA/PKWare lawsuits. Rumors have flown through many of the electronic conferences with people both defending and accusing SEA. With yet another round starting up with the second lawsuit, I'm going to try something. In two weeks, there is going to be a special edition of FidoNews. It will focus on the SEA/PKWare lawsuits. I am currently soliciting articles from both Phil Katz (PKWare) and Thom Henderson (SEA). In addition to these individuals, I am asking for the opinions of everyone reading this editorial. In order to make it easier, I pledge to do everything within my power to make every submission acceptable to MakeNews. As long as you get me something close to specs, it will go into this special edition. Send them in as files, as messages, disks through the mail. If I can determine how it was made, and can convert it to straight ASCII, I WILL print it. Why am I doing this? I'm primarily doing this because I am quickly becoming disgusted with the behavior of my fellow sysops. I've heard many of the facts about the first case and believe that SEA's actions were the correct and honorable thing to do. While some of the reason's on the first lawsuit were first reported in FidoNews, many seem to have missed the article or are choosing to ignore it. The bulletin board community has a right to feel concern over this issue, but before we all start condemning individuals, let's make sure we have the facts. FidoNet is meant to help communication, and to me this means that we find out the facts instead of flying off the handle. If it turns out that many of my fellow sysops and their users are willing to turn a blind eye to the truth, then it will be my turn to pass on the flame. I can not stay in a network should the network at large feel inclined towards injustice, it will become my time to leave the network. So write your opinion, send it in, make you position public knowledge. What is my opinion? Find out in two weeks... Dale Lovell 3266 Vezber Drive Seven Hills, OH 44131 FidoNet 1:1/1 data: 216/642-1034 1:157/504 voice: 216/524-1985 usenet ..!ncoast!lovell ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-38 Page 2 19 Sep 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= =========================================================== C O M M U N I T Y S E R V I C E S B U L L E T I N =========================================================== September 1988 PACKET RADIO PROJECT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEEDS HELP A high school teacher in the L.A. area, working with the National Science Foundation and the JPL, is setting up a program to network schools together using amateur radio packet nets. Assistance is needed immediately from amateur radio operators or others with the appropriate interests and backgrounds to help install, maintain, and instruct teachers on the usage of these nodes. The network is even- tually expected to be worldwide. To become a volunteer, or to get information on using packet radio in your school, contact: Owen Robbins 9340 Friendship Ave Pico Rivera CA 90660 (213) 926-2326 (school phone) (213) 692-1605 (home phone) CompuServe: 76046,1234 Also needed are people to document this project, and report on it in detail to Community Services. --- EMAIL SYSTEM FOR BLIND NEEDS PROGRAMMERS, DOCUMENTERS Talking Dog is a personal FidoNet-compatible emailer for the blind which uses a speech synthesizer, being developed in C using existing source code as much as possible. TD will be public domain. The TD project has immediate need for: + Source code in C (preferably MicroSoft) for a message reader/writer that can shell out to the user's choice of editors. + C programmers (again, preferably with MicroSoft com- pilers) to complete the modifications to the other utilities being used. + Experienced document writers, preferably with some FidoNews 5-38 Page 3 19 Sep 1988 background and understanding of the needs of the blind. Please contact David Drexler at one of the addresses below. --- INVITATION TO JOIN ECHO FOR KIDS All teachers, and sysops with children between the ages of "old enough to type" and 12th grade are invited to partici- pate in the KIDS echo. This echo is for pen-pal activities between kids, and for parents and teachers to also join in the fun and to communicate with each other. At 50+ messages per day, this is one of the hotter echos around. About 2 months ago, it went international to Australia and Canada. A link to the UK is also in the works. To participate in this echo, contact Paul Witherspoon, KIDS echo coordinator, at 1:383/6. ----------------------------------------------------------- The Community Services Bulletin is a service of the IFNA Public Affairs Committee. Community Services addresses the need for telecommunications by the public for non-commer- cial uses. Have you heard about an interesting application lately? Are you involved in a project that could use some assistance? Would you like to be a part of the Community Services team? Drop me a line, I want to hear from you! David Drexler FidoNet: 1:19/1 Usenet: {spl1, ihnp4, uokmax}!occrsh!squid!david VoiceNet: (405) 848-8868 ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-38 Page 4 19 Sep 1988 Fredric L. Rice Warns of Nuclear Disasters In FidoNews Volume 5, Number 36 (5 September 1988) Written September 10, 1988 by George Falcon Sysop 1:109/648 "The Falcon's Rock" Hub of the MENSA and MWM Echo Conferences As someone disappointed in seeing the growth of the world population without maintaining growth in awareness of our planet's needs, I'm sorry to see that Mr. Rice has chosen the anti-nuclear argument to defend. The argument against nuclear power could be made a great deal more potent without the numerous inaccuracies in his article. Mr. Rice omitted the source of his expertise. I cannot claim a degree in nuclear, mechanical, electrical, chemical, or civil engineering, in physics or health physics. In fact, I cannot yet lay claim to any degree at all! I was impressed, therefore, when I was able to see so many obvious faults in the text of Mr. Rice's article on a topic for which he is so obviously unprepared. Surely there must be less expensive ways to make oneself appear foolish than to purchase a computer and invest hundreds of hours and dollars to write a weak article like his. At the very least he should have named as closely as possible the sources of his information. I work for a large computer services company in support of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. I maintain the staff files, produce the staff input reports, and input the data from those reports into the IBM Model 3090 mainframe which the NRC leases from the National Institutes of Health. I have seen the time each of these engineers spends in resolving each tiny aspect of each plant's operation (whether power or nonpower). I am, for this article, and for the sake of clarity and accuracy, taking sides with the nuclear industry. Please remember, though, that I would much rather we were using a source less hazardous to life on this planet. In reading Mr. Rice's article, aside from numerous misspellings, I noted the following items to which I take exception: 1. On page 5, he says, "There are a bewildering number of nuclear reactors strung along the California coast line." I find it difficult to understand why Mr. Rice would be bewildered by trying to count to four. That's how many operational nuclear power plants there are in the state of California. 2. There are basically two types of reactors: Boiling Water Reactors (BWR's) and Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR's). Mr. Rice does not mention the second type, but there are power plants in which the nuclear fuel simply pressurizes, rather than boils, the water. Most people say that water "changes phase" when it becomes steam, rather than saying that water "expands" into steam, as Mr. Rice does at the bottom of page 5 and top of page FidoNews 5-38 Page 5 19 Sep 1988 6. 3. On page 6, paragraph one, line 12, Mr. Rice that "the Atomic Energy Commission will allow leaky fuel rods to remain in operation until the rad count rises to well above the legal limit." The engineers here would be breaking to law to permit such operation. If Mr. Rice knows of such a violation and fails to notify the Department of Justice, wouldn't he be an accomplice? I suspect that he doesn't know of any such violation, probably because there aren't any. In addition, the Atomic Energy Commission was reorganized fourteen years ago. The responsibilities carried by the AEC have been borne by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since that time. Has Mr. Rice been doing his research in a time capsule? 4. Page 6, para. 4: I think what Mr. Rice was aiming for when using the word "pourve" in the second line was the acronym "PORV", which stands for Pressure-Operated Relief Valve". 5. In the next paragraph, second line, Mr. Rice gets the National Rifle Association involved in this conspiracy... either that, or he meant to put "NRC" in there instead of "NRA"... but if he knew that the NRC was the responsible agency, how does the Atomic Energy Commission fit into Mr. Rice's story? The balance of Mr. Rice's article could be based on as little information was displayed in the first few pages, and less, since he wisely points out on page 7, para. 3 that he'd "...like to detail an event which could occur at the San Onofre power plant which would by no means be typical." I enjoy fiction, Mr. Rice, but I prefer it when it's based on reliable facts. A man who works around the corner from me as a supervisor in the Performance Evaluation Branch of NRR was nice enough to take the time to review Mr. Rice's article and comment on it for me. He said that it was like someone who puts together a human being with the head coming off the hip... the parts may be working right, but they're not put together in a form that makes sense. Mr. Rice demonstrates the old axiom, "You can't believe everything you read" quite aptly. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-38 Page 6 19 Sep 1988 System Enhancement Associates Policy Statement on ARC Trademark and Copyrights Many of our users have expressed concern regarding use of the ARC trademark and copyrights. To better meet their needs we have formulated this Statement of Policy, effective as of September 13, 1988. This policy applies to anyone who does not already have an agreement with us. In the interest of serving the needs of the bulletin board community and supporting the shareware concept, we pledge to: o Maintain the ARC file format as a stable industry standard. o Continue to upgrade ARC for speed and efficiency. o Continue to distribute ARC as a shareware product, and continue to allow for its free non-commercial use. Futhermore, we pledge to foster the ingenuity and creativity of our fellow shareware authors, whom we are happy to support in virtually every manner. ARC To protect the rights of our shareware licensees, ARC may be freely copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) No fee may be charged for such copying and distribution. 2) ARC may only be distributed in its original, unmodified state. 3) ARC may not be distributed, in whole or in part, as part of any commercial product or service without the express written permission of SEA. 4) ARC may be made available for download by pay bulletin boards and similar commercial services provided that no additional fee is charged specifically for downloading ARC. ARC TRADEMARK Use of the ARC trademark may be licensed subject to the following terms: 1) Any use of the ARC trademark means that the product is SHAREWARE. We need a fully functional copy of the latest version with documentation to make available on our BBS for FidoNews 5-38 Page 7 19 Sep 1988 general download. 2) Your product must be compatible with the current version of ARC from SEA, and must be of an acceptable level of quality and workmanship. 3) We must have your name and address so that we can keep you informed on any changes to ARC. 4) As the legal owner of the ARC trademark, we are bound by US trademark laws to protect and maintain the integrity of ARC in any program that uses the ARC trademark . To comply with this, we must ask for fully commented source code. We will keep your source code completely confidential if you so desire, and we will not make use of any of your source code in any of our products. ARC SOURCE CODE The ARC program sources have always been available for informational purposes. They may be used freely in the creation of shareware utilities that examine the contents of an ARC format archive. Any other use of the ARC source code is subject to the following terms and conditions: 1) Your product must be SHAREWARE. We need a fully functional copy of the latest version with documentation to make available on our BBS for general download. 2) The first $100,000 worth of revenues is yours to keep. We want 6.5% of any revenue above that in return for the use of our code. 3) For the protection of our users, your product may not produce ARC format archives which are incompatiable with our current version of ARC. ARC FILE FORMAT 1) We hereby grant to the entire world and all sentient creatures in the universe who do not already have an agreement with us to the contrary a perpetutal, unlimited, galaxy wide license to read, extract, create, or otherwise manipulate ARC format archives. This does not include any license to use our sources or trademarks. 2) If you make any changes to the format such that your file is not compatible with the current version of ARC, then the result may not be referred to as an ARC format Archive. We feel that this Policy Statement is a fair and workable answer FidoNews 5-38 Page 8 19 Sep 1988 to all concerned with ARC format archives, developers and users alike. If any developer is unable to comply with these terms, please contact us at (201) 473-5153 to discuss alternative arrangements. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-38 Page 9 19 Sep 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 10: BBS Utilities Let's face it -- there just isn't any easy way to go about setting up a customized bulletin board. You've GOT to have utilities. So, you say, what brought about THIS amazing revelation? Well, I like to program, and lately that passion has carried into Turbo C. And, as a SysOp, I finally am in a position where some neat little utilities would come in handy. I've needed some utilities for my job, and, when needed, I write them. But these were for ME. Well; me and Opus. First came the need to reset those darned NON-OPTIONAL colors that Opus sets up for you, assumedly through ANSI.SYS, which, after leaving Opus, are still the default colors. Light blue characters on a black background. Way to go guys, I can hardly see it with my cheap CGA card and monochrome monitor. So is born SC, the screen color setter (which uses ANSI.SYS instead of some easier routes available). Now I can see the screen but can't see those nasty d'Bridge virus files in my Opus outbound directory; FS, the File Search utility can list those system and hidden boogers, redirecting output to a file to be applied to such commands as MARK (remove file attributes) and DEL (need I say more?). Oh, yes, we've gotten rid of those files, but what about that "painfully" verbose Opus.Log file? CYCLE OPUS.LOG OLYYMMDD.LOG and -- I now have a dated filename on the log cycling -- which is, incidentally, archived and subsequently deleted. Once a day that log cycle gets deleted, but I have a hardware quirk in my system that forces me to reboot right at midnight; WAITUNTL 23:59:59 during my before-midnight event followed by REBOOT. And to insure that other events that take almost no time at all won't be repeated? DELAY 60 insures a 60 second event. Okay, what about posting FidoNews? Well, all we have to do here is CYCFNEWS E:\FILE\FIDONEWS -C10 -R and now there are only the latest 10 cycles of FidoNews in the FidoNews file area, and only the latest one is unarchived, and in my case the -R will retain dated entries in the FILES.BBS for any FidoNews archives that have been removed from the directory. Any FILES.BBS entries not pertaining to FidoNews are left alone. Who needs utilities? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-38 Page 10 19 Sep 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON MENSA PRESENTS "A CONGRESS ON THE POTOMAC" Speakers! Carnelli! Movies! Games! Contests! Saturday Night Dance! Registration: Postmarked by September 30: $30 Received by November 14: $35 At the door: $40 Under age 20: $20 Meal Tickets: Sat. Deli Buffet Lunch: $16 Sat. Night Banquet: $25 Sun. Brunch Buffet: $18 Three-Meal Package: $57 Meals MUST be paid for in advance. There is no guarantee of at- the-door availability. Hyatt Regency Crystal City 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington, VA. 22202 (703) 486-1234 Single or double, per night, plus tax $64. Beginning Sat. night, Nov. 20, the rate drops to $49 per night for Thanksgiving week. Make hotel reservations directly with the hotel. For those of you who've been putting off inquiring about Mensa membership until there was an extra-special good reason, now you need not put it off any longer. This Regional Gathering (RG) promises to be a great deal of fun, as most of them are... a party that lasts all weekend. Registration is $40 at the door, or $35 if received by the registrar (Mike Tuchman, MWM, P.O. Box 27534, FidoNews 5-38 Page 11 19 Sep 1988 Wash., D.C., 20038) by the 14th of November. This RG will be held in Northern Virginia from November 18th through the 20th. Mensa accepts many standardized tests supervised by other organizations, or you can get yourself scheduled for a locally supervised testing session. For more information, write to American Mensa, Ltd., 2626 E. 14th St., Bklyn., N.Y. 11235-3992. This notice supercedes the previous notice on this R.G., which contained inaccuracies and omissions which were entirely my fault. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90b* EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.22* Fido 12h MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M XlaxNode 2.10 MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 2.00* XlaxDiff 2.10 QuickBBS 2.01 ParseList 1.20* * 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 5-38 Page 12 19 Sep 1988 ================================================================= COMMITTEE REPORTS ================================================================= Don Daniels 1:107/210 Thanks to Greater Cincinnati Sysop Association As outgoing President of IFNA I wish to express both my personal thanks and the appreciation of the corporation to all those who participated in the Greater Cincinnati Sysop Association's FidoCon '88 Organizing Committee. It was very apparent that they put a great deal of effort into the many preparations for FidoCon. During the year, I was very impressed with the professional and enthusiastic approach that they put into their work and it paid off with a conference that evryone I spoke to agreed was a productive success. Thank you: Tim Sullivan Rick Ashworth Jesse Armentrout Steve Sullivan Mark Walker Decker Doggett Greg Hanfbauer Bill Smith Pete Tyjewski and anyone I may have missed! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-38 Page 13 19 Sep 1988 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Hal DuPrie 101/106 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Ray Gwinn 109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator David Garrett 103/501 Secretary Steve Bonine 115/777 Treasurer IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 102/732? Don Daniels 107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 11/301 Hal DuPrie 101/106 12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 147/1 13 Rick Siegel 107/27 Steve Bonine 115/777 14 Ken Kaplan 100/22 Ted Polczyinski 154/5 15 Larry Kayser 104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1 16 Vince Perriello 141/491 Robert Rudolph 261/628 17 Rob Barker 138/34 Steve Jordan 102/2871 18 Christopher Baker 135/14 Bob Swift 140/24 19 David Drexler 19/1 Larry Wall 15/18 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 107/233 -----------------------------------------------------------------