Volume 5, Number 48 28 November 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. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 COMPLAINTS--COMPLAINTS! .................................. 1 BBX - A New Service For SysOps From Byte/BIX! ............ 6 The Great Computer Room Explosion of '78 ................. 9 A Reason For Gating ...................................... 11 Sapphire: A Revolutionary New Kind of BBS ................ 12 LAST SATURDAY ............................................ 14 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 19 Bodies Behind the BBS: Bob Rudolph ...................... 19 Let's YACK about Burnout ................................. 21 3. NOTICES .................................................. 22 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 22 Latest Software Versions ................................. 22 And more! FidoNews 5-48 Page 1 28 Nov 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Jake Hargrove Fido 301/1 High Mesa Ranger's After reading last weeks Fido News, and continuinging to monitor all of the echo areas I participate in I guess it is time I do this article. I have been putting it off now for almost 6 months. I have seen FLAME after FLAME towards the IC, RC, and even NC. I have watched as many a good SysOp has crumbled and gone their merry way to bigger and better things. An in some cases into Other Newly formed Net Works. I want all of you to know up front, I am not normally a conformist and am usually the first to disagree with everything and anything. This article is not a FLAME, but is a direct attack upon some of the principles we ALL are suppose to Operate within. How many of you know the document (Policy3) which we all are suppose to comply with is DATED: 24 Oct 1986? Two years OLD, it is the same policy which I came into the Net under. It starts off with a very simple statement which is true even today. QUOTE " FidoNet is an amateur Electronic mail system. As such, all of it participants and operators are non-paid volunteers." With just over 1000 Nodes. Well I looked when parselst compiled my nodelist this week and we have over 4000 nodes. Not only are most of us still volunteers many of us do this as a Hobby, or as I always say "For the Fun Of It". When it no longer is Fun I will do what most of the others have Done, and that is PULL THE PLUG. Not only the Phone, but the BBS. An right now it is close to no longer being FUN. One of the Easiest RULES which had to be complied with to be part of the FidoNet is still OUR main stay, though many of us can do it in ways different than when running a Fido System. We MUST all run what was called NMH (National Mail Hour), or what is now ZMH (Zone Mail Hour). This one hour time period is our BACKBONE. It is the time slot where NC, RC, ZC and yes even the even the IC can send NET mail to all of us. You know what is funny? For the past 2 years I have ran this Mail Hour and only on a couple of occassions have I received mail during this period. You may ask why. Well it is because of the invention of that thing called Crash Mail. Where you can Poll a system and pickup mail for your system anytime day or night. But would you believe me if I told you that Net Mail or even Echo Mail is not the ROOT of many of the problems this Network is presently experiencing? Well it is not. Ever read Chapter 3? Your Network Coordinator? Well you should. Because this Administrative Position within the Network structure is probalby the Most Important. With out this individual many of you would not have a Node Number. In fact, I would say about 90 percent of US would not have a number. The FidoNews 5-48 Page 2 28 Nov 1988 remaining 10 percent are assigned by the Region Coordinators and in some cases referred to as Orphans or Independent Nodes. Well they are still part of this Net work and we should support them as if they were our own. In fact, if there is an Independent node within a region which is even close to an active net, then it should be the Region Coordinators and Net Coordinators primary purpose to ensure this independent node is accepted into a Net. An unlike some I feel the NC structure is a valuable part of our total network structure. This one position must ensure each node within the net is operating smoothly, not causing problems, and in general complying with OUR policy. It should also be the focal point for distribution of FidoNews, Nodediff changes, Nodelist if necessary, and assistance in establishing new nodes within the net. I can truly say if it were not for the Net Coordinator of my orginal Net I would not be here today. He did a lot of work to get me into the Net from the very start. Region Coordinators, probably have the easist position of all, as long as all of US NC under them do our administrative task properly and in a timely manner. The hardest thing I see a RC having to do is keeping the region in some simulance of order much like a small net work, which a region basicall is with each of the NC acting as representative for the Net's. Mind you I am not saying that RC do not have a tough JOB, but as long as I do mine right my RC has it easy. International Coordinator, Get a copy of policy3 and READ this section, Chapter 5. You people who have FLAMED THE IC in the past few weeks need to get a copy and read this section. An I have just a few words for you. 1. If you do not like what is says. Then why has it not been changed. 2. Until it is changed, then I suggest you either LIVE with it or Move on to something else. I for one would not VOLUNTEER to fill this position without some MAJOR changes in the present FidoNet Policy. His primary function of maintaining the node list, may very well be the most difficult administrative function of all of FidoNet. Without it all you complainers would have to find some other way of making contact with all the other complainers. One other charge of this position is the Smooth Operation of the Entire FidoNet work, not all these other networks but OUR net work. An right now he is having a very difficult time. An the main reason is because he is trying to make things better and still maintain the integrity of FIDONET. An for those of you who have not read the Policy, then I again strongly suggest you do. An make it a point to read para 6.4, page 15. I am again going to quote this particular part for one simple reason. I WANT TO. QUOTE: FidoNews 5-48 Page 3 28 Nov 1988 6.4 Problems with the International Coordinator If you are having problems with the International Coordinator, the you are out of luck. You can either live with it, drop out and forget it, or join with some friends and start another mail system of your own. UNQUOTE: We all sometimes get displeased with what is going on around us, but MUTINY is not the way. Whether or not we want to admit it, we are an orginazation, and starting to become a rather large one. With over 4000 nodes, and many more users than I want to try and count because it seems every one is getting into this Hobby of ours. So someone has to take the Reins, and make sure things are running smoothly. An if it were not David Dodell it would be someone else, and there is only one way I see for things to get streight and for those of you who do not like to be managed, manhandled, and confronted with policy and controls. I am very sorry to say, if you operate a BBS you have some kind of rules, which must be complied with and I for one think that many of your users do not like them either but they stay as users for one reason because they want to. They may not like your rules, but if they are interested in your operation they stay, if not then they go find some one elses board to play on. I agree the IC, RC, and NC should not have any say in the operation of any BBS, but when the operation of that BBS interacts with the local net then the NC by all means has a say in how it is done, whether it be Echo Mail, Net Mail, or simple ensuring a node is operating in the proper manner, Like running mail hour, or even operating at all. An the NC should be able to act on what ever the problem may be. If a node cannot be contacted for 7 days by net mail. Then the NC is responsible for making the proper node diff changes. If this continues it is within his responsibility to place the node on hold, show it as down or delete it complete from the nodelist. An I know many do not like that but that is just the way it has to be. The same things applies to being annoying or excessively abusive. It is the NC, RC and board sysop's responsibilty to correct this type of problem and MAKE decisions. For the NetWork to survive, or rather for the NetWork to operate we must have a structure of some kind. An contrary to some belief, IFNA is not a governing body. It is simply and International Organization of Sysops. Some of which may or may not operate systems which are compatable with Fido BBS. I for one Operate a Binkley/Opus system, and have over the past few weeks been considering making it a Mail Only system. Because I for one do not care if I have Users on my BBS or not. I operate this BBS for Me. I read the mail and when I finnish I delete it. I do not have any users who call and read mail. An when they find I do not allow Uploads or only downloads of certain software, they do not call back. Now that I have most of that off my chest. I guess I can FidoNews 5-48 Page 4 28 Nov 1988 get down to some serious Business. EchoMail, I have heard that this sysop or this moderator is pulling out of FidoNet and taking a Conference with Him/or her. An we in FidoNet will not longer have access to these echo areas. I say BUNK, just because a moderator takes a echoarea and moves on does not mean we cannot have it here to. One of the main ones I have heard about is about the HardDisk conference. OK, guys, rename it, and those that are still in FidoNet who want to participate Will participate. An with everything that is out there to strip seenbys, and origin lines, then some enterprizing sysop will figure out a way to get the messages from other nets into his area to read anyway. Or simply set up a link of your own and do not pass it along to anyone else in FidoNet. If you guys want something bad enough you will figure out a way to get it. Just do not involve the rest of the net. An on the subjects of BACKBONE operation. A backbone to me is the mainstay of the human body. You can cut off an arm, or leg. But you must have your HEAD, and something to hold it up. This is YOUR Backbone. You can operate without the backbone, but you should let the backbone do it's job, and that is to get information from one point to another the fastest, cheapest and quickest means. True if a single node in Maine, wants to send an echo or net message to California it is easier to send it direct. But if that same message has a destination of Florida, North Dakota, Washington, Louisiana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, California and Hawaii. The its being transmitted to a Central Distribution Point, who sends it on to the next central distribution point who sends it to the nodes as necessary, then the Backbone is a Very Necessary part of our net. An I for one feel we should do everything in our power to make this process as easy, cheap and quick as possible. An those of you who want to keep making it harder and harder I say to you get out of my Life. Go join one of the other nets or start your own. But if you want to make things easy on me, and cheap for me, then by all means do so but do not kill me in the process of doing it. We need some rules, and policy, and we need someone to enforce these rules and policy. Swiftly quickly and without question. This is not an advocation for David Dodell to stepdown, it is also not an advocation to allow IFNA to assume control of the NET. It is an advocation for US as SysOps to do our own things but remember there are others out there who are doing their thing like us. An anytime you get more than one person doing their thing, you have to have quidelines of operation between the two boards, Whether written, oral, or a combination of both. That is just way things are. I also know there are those out there who will not like what I have just said, and others who will and still others who do not care. So you can go by an old saying. "Lead, Follow, or get the Hell out of OUR way." If we cannot live in Harmony with the other Net, or they cannot live in Harmony with US then I say we do not live together. This is sometimes called a seperation, we do not have to get a Divorce but it might be one of our options. AS I mentioned earlier, this is NOT A FLAME, if you take it FidoNews 5-48 Page 5 28 Nov 1988 that way so be it. But I have a strong feeling Fido Net will survive, it may not be as big as some folks would like for it to be but the smooth operation and continued operation of Nodes Under Fido Net must be with some type of standards. An these standards must be reviewed and updated as necessary to meet the changing of the NET. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 6 28 Nov 1988 BBX - A New Service For SysOps From Byte/BIX! Pete White 1:322/360 At a recent meeting of the SysOps here in the Eastern Region we were presented with a new service offered by BIX, the electronic publishing extension of Byte Magazine. While the original intent was to offer this service to the Boston area only we had the opportunity to talk with George Bond, the Executive Editor of BIX and he agreed to extend the Charter Membership offer to ALL FidoNet SysOps with an additional discount to IFNA members. I'm sure many of you will find it interesting, and if you don't know what BIX is the three month trial period for $50 is a fantastic and inexpensive way to find out. What is the BBX? The Bulletin Board Exchange is a new service to be offered this fall by BIX (R), the BYTE Information Exchange, to sysops of local BBSes. The BBX allows sysops to become publishers of information from the Microbytes Daily News Service. It also provides an efficient, low-cost way to exchange information between BBSes and to conduct BBS network business. What do you get? 1. Daily news and features from BBX/Microbytes to publish on your BBS. BBX/Microbytes is a custom package of news and features designed specially for local BBSes. It will be available only to sysops. Every Monday through Friday you will get microbytes news stories about developments in microcomputing, telecommunications, and technology. In addition, each Friday you will get First Looks, a Microbytes Feature, and hardware and software new product items. All of this material is reported, written, and edited by BYTE and BIX staff members and correspondents throughout the United States and in Europe and Japan. Coverage includes reporting from industry trade shows, national and international special-interest group conferences as the events are going on, looks at important work at R&D labs and in college and university technical centers. 2. The monthly Best of BIX to publish on your BBS. Each month, you will get the Best of BIX. BoB is just what its name implies -- a distillation of the choicest material from the conferences of the BYTE Information Exchange. Core areas cover IBM PCs and other MS DOS machines, Macintoshs, the Apple // family, Amigas, and Atari STs. Other topics -- Unix, the NeXT computer, FidoNews 5-48 Page 7 28 Nov 1988 object-oriented programming, etc. -- also are covered, although not necessarily on a monthly basis. 3. Use of the BIX computer for mail, message and file transfers. You will be able to use the BIX host computer, and the Tymnet telecommunications network, not only to collect your BBX articles but also to exchange your own information with other sysops. BIX will tailor private conferences for your use. You may use our host to avoid the busy signals that sometimes plague dialup nodes. You also can use private conferences to conduct inter-BBS business. Since most telephones in the United States are only a local call away from a Tymnet node, you should be able to cut your BBS network telecommunications costs sharply. Incidentally, BIX -- and the BBX -- are available worldwide through the international packet-switching networks. It also is available through PC-Pursuit. 4. And all the rest of BIX for your personal use! You will be able browse through the more than 150 public conferences on BIX, participate in real-time chat sessions, and use our many libraries of files for downloading. What will this cost you? Membership in the BBX will be by subscription only. The regular annual membership fee for the BBX and BIX combined will be $199. Charter memberships will be available for $160, and special 3-month trial memberships will be available for $50, but only through Dec. 31, 1988. All IFNA members will receive an additional 10% discount. Your telecommunications charges are not included in these prices. If you live in the Boston area, your only other expense for the BBX will be a local phone call (the BIX host computer is in Lexington, Mass., and dialup ports are available). If you use Tymnet, you will be charged $2 an hour evenings, weekends, and and major holidays. Prime-time use is 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and is billed at $8 an hour. All times are your local time, and all charges are calculated to the nearest minute. How do you subscribe? It's easy. You can call BIX and register on-line. Using Tymnet: After handshaking is done you will see a line of garbled FidoNews 5-48 Page 8 28 Nov 1988 characters (or a request for "terminal identifier). Respond with a lower-case "a". You should then get a "please log in" request. Respond "bix" and a carraige return. The next display will be the BIX welcome screen, ending with a prompt saying "Name?" Enter "ug.bbx" here and you will begin the registration script. If you elect to pay with a credit card (AmEx, MC or Visa), you will be able to use BIX immediately upon completion of registration. If you decide to prepay for time or to set up a corporate account you will have to complete some paperwork before you have access to BIX. Direct dial: If you dial directly to BIX (the direct line is 617-861-9767), respond "bix" to the login prompt and enter "ug.bix" at the "Name?" prompt. Continue as with Tymnet from here. If you are a member of the IFNA, please leave a mail message to "bixbilling" with your membership number and a request for the 10% IFNA member discount. When you register for a year at the cost of $160 and you use the BBX capabilities for only 2 hours a week, or 104 hours a year, the hourly cost will be approximately $3.538461538 per hour! And this includes Tymnet charges! Please direct any questions about BBX to either Mr. George Bond at 1-800-227-2983 (voice) or to me at 1:322/360. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 9 28 Nov 1988 P U N C H - C A R D C H U M What to do with it A suggestion by Fredric L. Rice (103/503.3 Astro-Net) One of the more asked question circulating among the high schools and colleges around the Southern California area is what possible uses exist for the chum generated by punch cards and paper tape. At the start of every morning, bright and early, before all of the students classes begin, you go around to all the punch card machines and collect the chum into a large plastic bag. After you have ten pounds or so of the stuff, you pause at the trash bin to consider saving it for it may come in handy someday. After a moments reflection, you simply toss it away. I have a suggestion. Towards the end of the high school year, many years ago, my brother brought to the computer room a large CO^2 cartridge. Along with the cylinder he brought 2000 or so books of matches. Now I know a lot of you have tried this and, in fact, it's an illegal and highly dangerous, (not to mention stupid), thing to do, but you must consider that high school kids with no supervision but lots of time on hand will do illegal, dangerous, and stupid things. At first, match heads went into the cartridge, being packed down as sulfur was added. Next came match heads mixed with the paper tape and punch card chum. A variety of mixes were tested to see which burned nicely without being too explosive when packed down. It was hoped that a linear acceleration curve could be acquired by regulating the rate at which material was expelled. After some four pounds of chum was mixed in, we were ready to play. Normally a launch tube is required but since there was none at hand, a teletype roll of paper was used. Also a slight inclination is needed to acquire a nice, flat, trajectory. For this, we used the computer rooms door jam. This door looked out over a short playing field, (currently in use but soon to be not in use), then over a road and on out into the Orange County Fair Grounds. After setting the cylinder inside the paper roll and propping it up on both sides with magnetic DEC tapes so it wouldn't roll, the rest of us took up our bunker positions. Me behind one teletype, Robert behind the other; Allen, Bob, and at least two others hidden behind a table tipped onto its side before the window. A spot was reserved close to the door for my brother, the winner of the lottery. It was hoped that he might be able to jump far enough behind the book case to avoid any problems which might occurs after igniting the thing. FidoNews 5-48 Page 10 28 Nov 1988 My brother bent down over the cartridge and put a match to its nozzle. After the briefest amount of smoke issued from the nozzle, he was somehow behind the book case and down before any of us could see him take his first step. It's unsettling to note that while this was going on, classes were being held to either side of us and students were walking past the door looking in and wondering what we were up to... We didn't mind killing a Freshmen or two and had at times dumped them off the second floor walkaways into the bushes below. It's also interesting to remember another occasion a year before where a friend of mine, Mike, was trying to constrict the nozzle of a much smaller CO^2 cylinder in a futile attempt to gain more velocity. After stuffing it full of sulfur, he took a soldering iron to it and tried to seal the end up with a match head sticking out. A strong lad but somewhat lacking in brain. He only lost two fingers and the use of a third but I imagine it could have been worse. I mean, the guy was holding the thing at the time. In his lap. I also imagine that he will some day run for president. Where was I? Oh, yes... Libya uses Dynamite. Iran uses C4. I'd rather use match heads. What happened after the thing was lit is unclear, even after the investigation, but I can tell you that its explosion was heard all over that campus, across the street, and all over Orange Coast College. Looking over the computer room filled with reeking smoke, I could see the carpet on fire from one side of the room to the other. Burning match heads and punch card chum was sprayed all over the floor, teletypes, modems and CRT's. Parts of the paper roll had been blown through the ceiling and much of it was never found. Stupid? Yes... But we used some of that useless chum. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 11 28 Nov 1988 Pete White 1:322/360 A Reason For Gating There's a considerable amount of controversy in several of our echoconferences on the subject of using gates between the various nets. While I see literally hundreds of messages giving various political reasons for and against the implementation of gates, there seem to be very few discussing the technical reasons. I'm certainly not qualified to discuss the technical reasoning for the necessity of using gates and would welcome seeing commentary here in FidoNews explaining the positive as well as negative aspects of using gates between networks. To me there's no reason to continue to discuss the political aspects, especially after a recent check showed that when the AlterNet, EggNet and FidoNet nodelists were all added together there were only 92 nodes NOT listed in the FidoNet nodelist. I would hope all would agree that long political discussions on something that presently appears to impact so few is ludicrous. There is one positive side to gating that few seem to take into consideration. Technology changes rapidly and a smaller net has the capability of changing technology much more quickly and more easily than a large net. A net the size of AlterNet, for example, could change the software it uses for handling mail with little or no difficulty. I shudder to think of what it would take to make the same change within FidoNet, unless efforts were made to continue backwards compatibility. And I've been told that maintaining backwards compatibility while introducing totally new concepts is what has driven many a programmer to drink. If we support the use of gates we support the growth of technology within our hobby. Forcing everyone to use the same technology inhibits the technical genius we have available, and there's certainly a lot of it out there. If we continue to think of the gate issue as a political one we might see someone winning the political battle while we all lose the technological war. Which do YOU feel is most important? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 12 28 Nov 1988 Timothy Campbell Fido: 1:167/161 Sapphire: A Revolutionary New Kind of BBS ------------------------------------------ MONTREAL -- Pinnacle Software, in association with Le Systeme OnLine, is introducing a shareware BBS system known as Sapphire. Pinnacle Software is best known for the Pyroto Mountain system, which integrates a game with a BBS. Pyroto can be run stand-alone, or as a door. An estimated 75,000 people dial into a Pyroto system, every week. Now Pinnacle Software is addressing the mainstream BBS world. Sapphire offers messaging, events-processing, doors, file transfer and full ANSI colour. Sapphire does not use menus, or single-letter commands. Rather, it uses word commands, such as READ or SEND. As a result, all functions are available at a single level; there is no need to "navigate" through the system to find the function you're looking for. Sapphire is both powerful and user-friendly. Especially powerful are the TEXT and NAMES functions, which enable the user to filter output according to imbedded text, or the name of the people (or files) that they are interested in. Thus, with only a few commands, the user can phrase a request such as: "Display every message on any message base, sent in the last three days, that was written by Tony or Mary, in which he or she mentioned the word Computer or Fido or Modem". Doors are installed directly, as commands. Because of this approach, doors are integrated into the system more smoothly. Up to 25 doors can be installed. Up to 10 events can be defined. Installing an event is very easy. You specify the time of the event and the name of the batch file to be executed. The batch file doesn't require any special modification to work with Sapphire. Thus, any batch file you may have could be called as a Sapphire event. Return to the BBS is automatic. The main attraction of Sapphire, however, is that it is a "Zero-Maintenance BBS". Once it is installed, the only task for the sysop is validation. The message-base is self-maintaining. The files function automatically keeps the 500 most popular programs available. The user list is automatically maintained -- removing inactive users when necessary. Absolutely everything about Sapphire is automatic. This makes it ideal for stores, consultants, new sysops -- and experienced sysops who are tired of their labour-intensive BBS software. Sapphire is now undergoing beta-testing at two sites in Montreal, with a scheduled release date of December 7th, 1988. A FidoNews 5-48 Page 13 28 Nov 1988 stand-alone system runs at 300-1200 baud, at 514-331-6791. Another system, running under Binkley, runs at 300-9600USR baud, at 514-286-1703 (Fido 1:167/161). For more information about Sapphire, you can contact Tim Campbell at 514-331-6791, or James Ludwick at 514-844-1374. Or you can pick up the PYROTO EchoMail conference, which now deals with all of Pinnacle Software's telecommunications products (Pyroto, Vortex, Sapphire, etc.). After December 7, 1988, you may file request "SAPPHIRE" from 1:167/161. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 14 28 Nov 1988 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Editor's Note <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< While this article does contain language that I would normally refuse to print (almost a first for me). I do believe it contains some information that should be brought out. I myself hadn't looked at the article until Tom Jennings sent me some netmail asking if it had been printed. The article itself really should have gone out before the elections earlier this month. Unfortunately, it didn't quite match specs and it sat around until TJ brought my attention to it. Once again, I repeat. THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND CONTENT. IT IS BEING PRINTED AS A COURTESY TO TOM JENNINGS AND BECAUSE I BELIEVE IT CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT MANY OF US ARE UNAWARE OF THAT CONCERNS US. -- Dale Lovell Editor of FidoNews >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< FIDONEWS EDITOR: This article was intended as self-therapy after the particular night in question. (Read it, you'll see!) I wrote it intending to publish it in two punk magazines, where the language used won't stand out. It will (ahem) stand out in FidoNews. I don't know what the policy, if any, is these days on submissions. The language is strong but so is the content. It's not fiction. Here's the article: * LAST SATURDAY * Tom Jennings [ Sorry - I didn't want this trash on my BBS. So I deleted the article from the file. John Souvestre, 390/101 ] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 19 28 Nov 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Steve Bonine 115/777 An Introduction of Bob Rudolph (261/628) But first a word from our sponsor. Sponsor? We ain't got no sponsor! Ah, but yes, you folks who read these articles are the sponsor. Didn't know that? Now you do. I've had pretty fair luck getting response from folks when I ask 'em to send me some information so that I can prepare a FidoNews article, but I inhabit a pretty narrow circle in FidoNet. Soon you readers will be tired of seeing *C types and IFNA types here. So here's what I want you to do -- YOU send mail to those folks who would fit well in this column. That's bound to work better than my sending them mail. But send me mail, too, and if I can find 'em in the nodelist I will prompt them with my little ques- tionaire. Now, down to business. This week our subject is Bob Rudolph, the current president of IFNA. Next week we'll talk about Don Daniels, last year's IFNA president. I've heard of people doing things because they were hit up the side of the head with a 2X4. . . Bob's involvement in BBS'ing began when his wife managed to drop a 2X10 on her big toe. This happy event turned him into a temporary house-husband and tele- commuter with a PC at home. Not knowing much about PC's, Bob invited one of the PC gurus from the office to help him set things up, and of course was supplied with a list of local bulletin board systems. Within a couple of months, Bob had developed a telephone bill so large that the phone company gave him the option of either paying it or taking on the debt of a third-world country. Bob's wife recovered, and he returned the PC to the office, but he had been infected by the BBS bug. Influenced by John Madill's Fido (#2, now 261/2), Bob started his own Fido system and joined net 109 when FidoNet numbered less than 800. Initially his BBS was a general file system (and consumed massive amounts of disk space), but the appearance of echomail led Bob to convert his system to a conversation place. His current system, Liberty Hall, grew out of the old Reindeer Shed, becoming a support-for- sysops and general conversation board with 70 echo areas and TradeWars for the game freaks. Bob has been NC for net 261 since net 109 got unweildy and Baltimore fell off. He is also NC for AlterNet 521. After joining IFNA in the beginning and ending up on the Board to replace a resigned member, Bob was reelected, and selected at FidoCon as IFNA's President. FidoNews 5-48 Page 20 28 Nov 1988 One of the target audiences for Bob's system is mainframers, since that is how he earns his living. Bob is a systems program- mer and has worked in both large and small shops. His specialty is CICS (which will mean little to most of you who think MS-DOS is too complicated as an operting system), in VM, VSE, and MVS environments. Between the sysgens and the echomail, Bob retains his sanity with other activities. He sings in the church choir (his wife is the director), is a sometimes motorcyclist, and is an avid reader with a paperback collection of around 2000. One of his comments struck a special nerve with me -- "I have been involved with photography and will doubtless be involved with it again one fine day." Ah, for time to do everything we want. . . As he puts it, Bob is a "retired fat guy", and co-founder of the FAT_TABLE echo (with John Lamb on the west coast) for folks on weight-loss programs. He likes to blay bridge, but not for blood. And he's something of a jazz afficionado. At the next FidoCon perhaps we can organize a friendly bridge game with low- calorie snacks, and jazz in the background . . . Bob's wife is a piano and voice teacher (good thing she didn't drop that 2X10 on a wrist), and they have been married nearly 21 years. Just in case Bob doesn't have enough irons in the fire, they have three children -- Jamie is 15, Jessica 11 (going on 17), and Elizabeth 6. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 21 28 Nov 1988 YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 18: Burnout Ever get tired of the same old problems? The same stresses? The same tireless rampage of life's idiosyncrasies? Welcome to a condition commonly called "Burnout". You'll see a lot of that here in FidoNet. Let's face it, most of us SysOp types are just a wee bit strange. After all, who would do this for the heck of it? I got looked at kinda funny when somebody found out that, in this three bedroom house, my housemate and I each took the smaller bedrooms and put our computer equipment in the MASTER bedroom. Hey, we knew where our priorities were. So, people who get into FidoNet usually GET INTO FidoNet. And for some reason, SysOps also tend to be a pretty short-tempered bunch. Haven't figured that one out yet. We'll spend all weekend or three working nights getting our hardware and software to run right but won't give the guy at the other end of the EchoMail conference 45 seconds before we slam on the REPLY key. Guilty? You bet. I've done it as much as [almost] anybody has out there. And I'm the long-winded type. Anyway, with that many people constantly slamming each other's views, it comes as no surprise that, out of the blue, somebody will throw their hands up and say "Bye! I've had it!". Well, my recent case of burnout wasn't in FidoNet, it was at work. But I somehow failed to take a lesson to work with me that I have been slowly learning (very slowly) here in this fabulous network. Pull out FidoNews 5-24 sometime. James Zachary wrote a story called "Indios". In it a member of an electronic mail hobby network is losing his temper over flames and fights and is about to start striking back when the Indian who maintains his apartment complex intervenes. By the end of the debate, the hobbyist is calmed down and willing to take Indios' advise: "Take what is good with this and all else in life and leave behind what is bad."(1) I guess some of us are slow learners. _______________ (1)Zachary, James."Indios - A Network Yarn", Fidonews 5-24, 1988. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 22 28 Nov 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= November 11, 1989 A new area code, 708, forms in Illinois, covering the suburban Chicago area. Chicago itself will remain area code 312. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90b EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.32* Fido 12i 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 2.1* XlaxNode 2.22 MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 2.00 XlaxDiff 2.22 TPB Editor 1.21 QuickBBS 2.03 ParseList 1.20 TCOMMail 1.1 TPBoard 4.2 TMail 8810 TComm/TCommNet 3.2 UFGATE 1.0 Lynx 1.10 GROUP 2.0* D'Bridge 1.10 FrontDoor 2.0 * 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 5-48 Page 23 28 Nov 1988 ================================================================= COMMITTEE REPORTS ================================================================= IFNA Treasurer's Report October, 1988 Steve Bonine 115/777 IFNA Treasurer's report for October, 1988 RECIEPTS & DEPOSITS Membership fees 300.00 TOTAL RECEIPTS $300.00 DISBURSEMENTS TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS 0 EXCESS RECEIPTS OVER DISBURSEMENTS 300.00 ADD BEGINNING BALANCE 5920.40 BALANCE IN ACCOUNT 6220.40 Full year-to-date IFNA financial data is available for file- request from 1/11 using the name of IFNA$. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 24 28 Nov 1988 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Mark Grennan 1:147/1 13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5 15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1 16 Vince Perriello 1:141/491 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871 18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24 19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 25 28 Nov 1988 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________________ State ________________________________ Zip _____________________ Country _________________________________________________________ Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________ BBS Name ________________________________________________________ BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________ Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________ Board Restrictions ______________________________________________ Your Special Interests __________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in US Funds to: International FidoNet Association PO 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 second elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-48 Page 26 28 Nov 1988 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1:1/10 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. Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986 IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ SUBTOTAL _____ IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____ Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member International orders include $10.00 for surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____ SUBTOTAL _____ MO. Residents add 5.725% Sales Tax _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS: International FidoNet Association PO Box 41143 St Louis, Mo. 63141 USA Name________________________________ Zone:Net/Node____:____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------- The m