Volume 5, Number 52 26 December 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. 1:1/1 is available for network mail between NMH-1 hour to NMH+1 hour. At all other times, netmail is not accepted although submissions can be uploaded. 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 Intro To FIDO (A Poem) ................................... 2 Sysop Comments on IFNA Statement of Direction ............ 4 National Law Enforcement Conference ...................... 6 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 7 Let's YACK about Vacation Time ........................... 7 3. NOTICES .................................................. 8 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 8 Latest Software Versions ................................. 8 FidoNews 5-52 Page 1 26 Dec 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Curtis Sahakian 115/982 FREE AND OPEN ECHO INFORMATION I am starting a non-backbone echo for the free and open exchange of information on echos and echo feeds. There is a need to create an forum for people to be able to freely discuss what is happening with the various new backbones that are coming into existence without being subject to political friction or intimidation. This requires an echo that does not depend on any particular backbone for distribution and does not try to impose any set of values or beliefs on the participants. As new backbones come into existence this will become increasingly important. To do this we need several regional hubs to carry and distribute the echo. We need one or two in California, one in the Colorado area, one in the Southwest, one in the Northeast and one in the Southeast. The ideal hub will be an echomail junky who knows the other local echomail junkies. There will be a modest volume of messages on the echo but it will contain a lot of valuable informa- tion about what is happening. It will also be an ideal place for someone to promote a new echo. There also seems to be a lot of confusion as to how and to what extent an echo moderator can maintain some proprietary right in an echo. That is a question that I and several other participating lawyers can answer if there is an interest. If you are interested in becoming one of the hubs for this echo please send an netmail message to me at node 1:115/982 Curtis Sahakian ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-52 Page 2 26 Dec 1988 Timothy Campbell Pinnacle Software 1:167/161 INTRO TO FIDO ------------- I was writing a BBS program, you see. I had a clear goal: make it maintenance-free! A friend, name of James, ran a beta-test site, Uncovering bugs and things that weren't right. One of his questions, it made my heart sink. "It can, I assume, run underneath Bink?" "Bink?" I inquired, not wanting to know. "Yes," he replied, "It's used for Fido". Fido! That means I've got more work to do. "Will your users need access, or is it just you?" "It's just for me, and Binkley does mail. So write for a 'door' and you're on the right trail." Ah! I could do that! I've written a door. But this talk of Fido ... I sought to learn more. So James said, "It's complex, but you'll get the gist, if you understand the Fido Node List!" "Node List? What's that?" I asked. He said, "Well, that's all the nodes! It's from MakeNL". "From MakeNL? What on earth does that mean? Give me a break: be more clear than you've been." Paying no heed, he said, "Then it's sent to us. So it arrives, in a form called 'St. Louis'. Now, you convert it -- I use XlaxNode. Some other people use different code." Now I was lost. I was very confused. My brain, it was spinning; my ego was bruised. But I took some notes, to make sense of this mess of Opus and oMMM and of QuickBBS. And sometime near dawn, I did see the light! I lived and breathed Fido; I knew ev'ry byte! Elated, I was, with newly-found smarts. Fido was great and I knew all the parts. I learned about SEAdog and TBBS, Dutchie and more! I knew it ALL -- YES! But what I heard next ... it made me go pale ... "Now we will learn all about ... EchoMail!" -- The BBS mentioned in the poem is Sapphire -- The Zero-Maintenance BBS. You can File Request SAPPHIRE from 1:167/161, which is the software distribution system for Pinnacle Software. Any comments to Mr. Campbell can be sent to the same node. If you cannot File Request, simply call 514/286-1703, and, without prior validation, you may download Sapphire. FidoNews 5-52 Page 3 26 Dec 1988 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-52 Page 4 26 Dec 1988 Jim Deputy (aka Sir Dep) 1:204/40 Sysop Comments on the IFNA Statement of Direction I have just read Don Daniels article "Problems Between IFNA and FidoNet ...and a Potential Solution" in FNEWS550. First off, I would like to commend Don on writing such an excellent article. The article lays several issues to rest that I have had with IFNA, and FidoNet. I have been in the Network now a little over a year. I think the biggest debate I have seen, is basically broken down to: "Who says, and by what right does IFNA claim to represent us." Recently Butch Walker resigned as the ZEC. An election was held in which only the *C's were allowed to vote. Yet, no-where in Policy3 is there such an office as ZEC, or NEC. Yet, they were allowed to vote. While I understand that many elections from a Node level might be a bit on the hard side to correlate. I would like to suggest that possibly, each and every Network in each Zone be required to have its own constitution. Under the constitution, the following could be laid out: 1. Method for the NC to poll nodes for opinions of the Sysops within the Net. The Nets vote count to be on a percentage of systems. i.e. a small net one vote a large net several votes. With the NC being required to vote (as close as possible) the percentage of votes for/against an issue. 2. A means whereby, on what is considered today to be a policy complaint, be placed before the sysops peers in the net prior to going up the *C chain on appeals. Thus if there is a complaint from outside the net, it is presented to the NC, who presents it to the Net as a whole. 3. With a similar constitution on a regional level and zone level. These constitutions should also have a means of re- calling or impeaching a *C if they are not doing their job. I agree with Don, Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither was New York. And while I know it may sound silly or whatever, I think a good Net-Level constitution, with similar constitutions for the Regional Level and Zone Levels might be a very good step in making IFNA a little more palatable for the rest of us. I think IFNA should be more of a Service/Standards type group. Meaning keep up the Nodelist, as well as set standards (at the start, to be moved into a more democratic aspect as it works FidoNews 5-52 Page 5 26 Dec 1988 out). Once the standards are set, to then see to the mainten- ance of those standards, and if necessary enforce them. I personally feel that it is real hard for someone to tell me that they represent me, when I don't have a darned thing to say about it. I was in the Net over 4 months before I even knew there was a Policy3, let alone a complaint channel to go along with it. And a constitution on a NET level would sure go along way in seeing that standards are maintained. As Rick Siegel (I think) is fond of saying: Just one persons opinion. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-52 Page 6 26 Dec 1988 Rick Bates 1:229/101 National Law Enforcement Conference If you're a law enforcement officer, or have users on your system that are law enforcement officers, you may be interested in an Echomail conference specifically set up for sworn officers (federal, state or local) including retired officers. The POLICE echo is an area dedicated to discussions of new enforcement techniques, training and benefit programs available for officers, and discussions concerning the use of PC's in law enforcement. Several of the participating boards maintain file areas dedicated to shareware or public domain software designed for use in law enforcement. The area has been running for almost two years now, and became international over a year ago. Police officers from all over North America participate in discussions of mutual interest. The Conference Moderators are (US) Dave Johnson (1:260/204) and (Canada) Rick Bates (1:229/101). This is a restricted access conference in that only sworn officers or retired officers are to be given access. Each sysop carrying the area is expected to set it up as a barricaded area and verify that any users requesting access are in fact officers. The echo is available to any Node operated by qualifying Sysops, and we are especially interested in Boards run by law enforcement personnel, or people in similar professions. Several other echoes are hosted by these police systems, including one in the Toronto area known as ASKACOP. Here users may ask several experienced police officers some everyday questions about law enforcement. Users are able to clear up questions they have on the law, and the officers have been able to pass on tips regarding various offences, safe driving, etc. That area, has since expanded and there is also an area called ASKALAWYER, where users can obtain specific legal opinions from practicing lawyers. Together, the private POLICE echo and the two public areas have created avenues of communications amoungst police officers and the public that would not otherwise be possible. In addition, at 229/101, the local Police post weekly Crime Stoppers bulletins in a read only format. This "online" format is the first of its kind in the Crime Stoppers program anywhere in North America. Sysops everywhere are encouraged to contact their local police agency and speak with the Crime Stoppers Coordinator for their area. For more information on any of these areas, contact either of the moderators listed above. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-52 Page 7 26 Dec 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 19: Vacation Time Well! Here I am, back from vacation! Sorry to miss a few issues of FidoNews here! Boy, a vacation does wonders for your mind and body -- even if you really don't go anywhere! All I did was go skiing for a weekend and go flying one morning and relaxed around the house for a day. All of a sudden my interest is back up in work, in FidoNet, in the EchoMail conferences...in FidoNews. Maybe that's part of our problem out there in some of the EchoMail conferences. Maybe we computer hacker types just get TOO into this FidoNet thing to take a breather once in awhile; we forget to stop and smell the roses along the way. Maybe that's why we keep getting so wrapped up in issues that may not mean much and so easily take offense to the written word on the screen. I mean, we're all intelligent people here. We SHOULD be able to recognize the fact that this electronic media lacks so much of the expressionism we humans rely upon to make our communication work. Yet how often do we see messages that are not only flame but obvious hasty replies to minor sections of messages that only lead to more flame and wanderings off the original, and possibly important, subject? I strongly recommend a vacation for anyone who feels burned out, even just a little bit, with anything happening in FidoNet. Some peoples' answer in the past was to "pull the plug". Did that help them? Probably. But was it the only answer? I say, probably not. They could've pretended to "pull the plug" by getting away from it for awhile. They could've possibly just checked the board each morning to make sure it was running, check the NetMail area for inbound messages from friends, maybe even check the local message bases out on behalf of their local users (remember them?), then say "Good-bye" for the day. In essence, they'd be taking a vacation from the socio-political environment of EchoMail and gone and done other things. Would this have worked? No telling. But I am here to tell you that a few weeks' break from FidoNet here has refreshed a great many of my attitudes. And I didn't even leave town! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-52 Page 8 26 Dec 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 1.30* TCOMMail 1.1 TPBoard 4.2 TMail 8812* TComm/TCommNet 3.2 UFGATE 1.02* 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 5-52 Page 9 26 Dec 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 5-52 Page 10 26 Dec 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 5-52 Page 11 26 Dec 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___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------