Volume 6, Number 9 27 February 1989 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|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 1989 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 Graphic GroupMail (OR... How GroupMail REALLY works!) .... 1 MSGHOLD - Holds your user's Group/EchoMail for them! ..... 4 SEA Letter: A Sample Script .............................. 5 It won't happen in America! .............................. 6 UNITEX: More Than Just Echo Mail ......................... 9 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 15 Let's YACK about Why Anyone Would Run a BBS .............. 15 3. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 16 Latest Software Versions ................................. 16 4. NOTICES .................................................. 17 And more! FidoNews 6-09 Page 1 27 Feb 1989 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Graphic GroupMail -OR- How GroupMail REALLY Works In the interests of clearing up some of the misinformation regarding GroupMail technology that has been spread around the networks, I have worked up this short graphic representation of how a pure GroupMail conference works. It is hoped that with this documentation, the reasons for the impossibility of duplicate messages and faulty topologies will become clear as crystal. Let's take the WARNINGS conference, for example, and set it up as a GroupMail conference. We have a Top Star, 440/1, several middle stars at the net level, and the leaf nodes (YOU). Here's how it might look: +----------------+ | Top Star: | +------------+ | Conference |----> |WARNINGS.XXX| | Moderator | +------------+ | WARNINGS 440/1 | GroupMail +----------------+ ARChive File ^ ^ ^ (Distributed to ALL) | | | ------------------ | ----------------- | | | +----------------+ +----------------+ +----------------+ | NET 100 | | NET 200 | | NET 300 | | MID LEVEL STAR | | MID LEVEL STAR | | MID LEVEL STAR | | 7:100/1 | | 7:200/1 | | 7:300/1 | +----------------+ +----------------+ +----------------+ | | | | ^ ^ | | ^ | | Other Net 100 Nodes | | Other Net|300 Nodes | | | ------------------ | | | | | +----------------+ +----------------+ +----------------+ | Node 201 | | Node 202 | | Node 301 | | 7:200/201 | | 7:200/202 | | 7:300/301 | +----------------+ +----------------+ +----------------+ ^ ^ ^ Any of these can be your system. Please notice that all arrows go in ONE direction ONLY (UP). Now lets trace the way a message entered on, say 200/201 would go about being distributed to the network in general. User Alan enters a message on 201. Later that day it is removed from the message base and packed up and sent to his uplink, mid FidoNews 6-09 Page 2 27 Feb 1989 level star Net 200 (when using non-Group-aware echo processors, the message might have to stay in the message base - small price to pay). When the ARCmail file (identical in every way to a normal echomail bundle) hits the midlevel star, he unpacks it, usually into his netmail area. Then, his group processor realizes that since the message is for the WARNINGS conference, it has to be bounced on up to the next uplink, so rather than moving into his message base, he redirects it to 440/1, packs it up for shipment (the same way that 200/201 did it!), and removes the message from his netmail area (a native GroupMail processor will do this for you). Finally, the message, in a normal ARCmail 'echomail' packet arrives on 440/1, the 'top star' for the conference. Since he's the top star, 440/1's group processor unpacks the message into his message base, where the moderator can peruse it for possible off-topic content, flame content, etc. The moderator then packs up Alan's message, along with ALL the other messages that have been passed along from nets 100 & 300, into one GroupMail style ARCmail file named WARNINGS.xxx (where 'xxx' is a base 36 minute of the month ARCmail naming convention), and is made available for pickup. You will notice that at no time did my hands leave my arms, er, at no time did the message touch any other systems message base. Alan's message was not ECHO'd ANYwhere. It was simply passed along, sight-unseen by all the star systems between 200/201 and 440/1. At this point, it exists only on the top star's system, and in that GroupMail packet, sitting on 440/1. Meanwhile, the midlevel stars have finished their daily processing, and are ready to call to pick up the new day's mail. Since their high water mark files (WARNINGS.!) have a date/time stamp of the last WARNINGS.xxx file they processed, when they do a File UPDate REQuest, their systems will see that the new WARNINGS file is 'later' than their high water mark file, and pick it up. They import the file into their message base, then turn around and make the WARNINGS.xxx file available to the next level of systems WITHOUT MODIFYING IT AT ALL. Alan's message now resides in the message bases of 440/1, 100/1, 200/1, and 300/1. They change the date time stamps of their WARNINGS.! file to match the date/time stamp of the WARNINGS.xxx file (for tomorrow's update request). However, what happens if one of the mailers that's being run on the mid-level star isn't running a program capable of generating a File UPDate REQuest? There exists in some GroupMail processors the ability to DELIVER the GroupMail ARChives by generating a File ATTach message to a specific list of nodes anytime it does a Group PACK (for Top Stars) or a Group IN (for mid-level stars). In this way, people without mailers sophisticated enough to perform the necessary requests can participate. This is a definite short-term kludge, however, since delivering a confer- ence is NOT the way GroupMail should work (think about what could FidoNews 6-09 Page 3 27 Feb 1989 happen if a node had a conference delivered to it by more than one node, or if it also requested the conference!) Hence, this short-term fix may disappear in the near future, as most mailers are brought up to date. Finally, the leaf nodes get their turn. They use their own high water marks (WARNINGS.!) to generate File UPDate REQuests to their uplinks, the mid level stars, and pickup WARNINGS.xxx. This is the SAME file that was distributed to 100/1, 200/1, & 300/1, and now resides on 200/201, 200/202, and 300/301. Since everybody has the same file, there is no need for SEEN-BY lines (non-group-aware echomail processors may need a SEEN-BY with just the uplink, or mid-level star in it, else they might resend the whole file back up the chain again. Still, its better than 3 or 4 lines of them!) Alan's message now resides on every system in the net. If 200/201 is running a non-groupmail-aware echomail processor to 'kludge' this process, it may have 2 copies of his message in its base, unless it has a sophisticated dupe killer, which would catch it on the way back. Either way, that'd be the ONLY message that appeared twice. As more and more GroupMail processors are developed for the different boards, this problem will become extinct. As you can see, only two boards handled Alan's message twice. 200/201, and its uplink, 200/1. No boards handled ALL the messages twice. And of course, with no SEEN-BYS or DUPES (or even FLAMES or off-topic messages if the moderator fully edits his conference), the GroupMail ARC files are much smaller and more quickly processed. No dupes can be generated because the conference isn't ECHO'd anywhwere. Alan gets positive confirma- tion that his message was seen by EVERYONE in the net (sort of like having electronic receipt mail!), and that the whole net probably saw it faster than echomail could ever possibly distribute it. Well, 'nuff said. I wanted this to be brief, but I also wanted it to be understandable. If you have any questions, or if you want to file-request GROUP (for FidoNet sysops), GMAIL (for QBBS sysops), or GMM (for Phoenix sysops), feel free to contact me at 7:520/583, 1:107/583, 9:807/1, or just plain ol' 1-201-935-1485. Phil Buonomo ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 4 27 Feb 1989 MSGHOLD - Holds your user's Group/EchoMail for them! Phoenix RCS BBS SysOps can now keep Group- and EchoMail messages addressed to their users. MsgHold V1.02 prevents message-base maintenance utilities, such as LRH's DOM (Delete Old Messages), from deleting messages addressed to users of that BBS. MsgHold keeps the message on the system for 4 weeks, or until the addressee has seen the message. It then releases it to be processed by the system. Registration of the shareware package allows SysOps to set the number of days to hold the message. This is believed to be the first utility of its kind! On systems that import large volumes of Echo/Group Mail, the problem arose that the message bases were becoming intolerably large. While message-base packing utilities took care of the size of the message areas, users of the BBS had to be sure to log in each and every day to check for replies to their messages, new information, etc. This is just an unreasonable task. Hence, the birth of MSGHOLD. This package is FREQ'able from 7:520/557 1:107/557 9:807/2 (The County Jail II BBS - 300-9600 HST/PCP) by the magic filename MSGHOLD, to be sure you always get the latest version. Other versions of MsgHold will soon be available for QBBS and TBBS systems. Look for their announcement here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 5 27 Feb 1989 What's Happening at SEA? SEAdog 4.00 was the first network mailer to provide a script capability for establishing a mail session over an alternate carrier. That original script driver was rather primitive, because at that time we did not yet know how many people (if any at all!) would be interested in such a thing. Well, now we know -- a LOT of people are interested! When we were designing version 4.50 one of our priorities was to develop a script language that could negotiate complex foreign networks, as well as provide a platform for netmail sessions with "foreign" systems. Since most of the present users of scripts use them to navigate Telenet's PC Pursuit service, we used that as our primary test case. The result in SEAdog 4.50 is a flexible and powerful script language that can handle the worst that an alternate carrier can dish out. A SEAdog script can handle not only the ordinary and expected cases, but can also respond intelligently to error conditions as they arise. We've developed a script for our own use that can take advantage of PC Pursuit, and can handle all of the occasional vagarities that arise -- everything from an offline dialout to a modem left in Racal-Vadic mode. The full script is too large to post here with an explanation, so we've gone through it and added copious comments. We added a route file to show how the script ties into the routing schedules. We've compiled an exchange list database for use by the script. And lastly, we've packaged it all in an archive and made it available for download or file request. If you're using SEAdog with PC Pursuit, get a copy of our sample script and make YOUR system PC Pursuit smart! Files mentioned this week: SCRIPTS.ARC A SEAdog script for PC Pursuit SCRIPTS.ARC may be downloaded from our technical support bulletin board at (201) 473-1991, or may be file-requested from either 520/1015@AlterNet or 1:107/1015@FidoNet. Next week: Kitten 2.00 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 6 27 Feb 1989 Claude F. Witherspoon Fido 1:288/525 ONCE UPON A TIME MAYBE IN AMERICA Once upon a time there was a nation founded upon the priciples of reason and moral responsibility. Blessed with an industrious people and abounding in natural resources, it became one of the most prosperous and self-sufficient nations on this great earth. Then one day it grew accustomed to ease and plenty, to many of its people grew self-indulgent (anyone you know?). Foreigners were quick to exploit this weakness. The way they did this, was to provide something that the great nation had little of, illicit DRUGS!... Drug smugglers established their headquarters in a southern city. In a matter of years, their poison had seeped into virtually every town and village via a weblike distribution system that flourished under the noses of judges, politicians and police (sometimes even with their assistance), for drugs can corrupt anyone. Now, to show "all was not lost", some INTELLECTUALS initially extolled the psychic and medicinal benefits of drugs and minimized their harm. Ironically, these intellectuals, along with the RICH and PRIVILAGED, were the first to succumb. The Army was next. The last, most tragic victims were the poor. In the final stages of the plague, addicts whom drugs did not kill outright became susceptable to infectious diseases, which they unwittingly spread to loved ones. And in time, this once great and noble nation was so withered that it fell victim to countries a fraction of its size. Now, if you think this story is about 20th-century America, your wrong. This is a capsule acoount of what actually happened to China in the 19th century. In the early 1800s, China was amoung the wealthiest, most self sufficient nations on earth. Its rulers had governed for centuries under ancient system ethics set down by the followers of Confucius. China's very name for itself, Zhongguo, the "Middle Kingdom," understood its glorious position between heaven and earth. Nothing could bring it down. Except itself. Western nations ran up huge trade deficits with China to pay for porcelain, silk and tea. But China remained wary of outsiders and had little interest in purchasing foreign goods. Thus little could be done to redress the imballance of trade...until Britian discovered China's secret taste for opium and began shipping it into the country from British fields in India. The pernicious drug had been severely restricted by law in 1729, but as imports rose, some scholar-officials argued that opium FidoNews 6-09 Page 7 27 Feb 1989 should be "decriminalized" and its distribution regulated by the government. Others declaired that is was beneficial to a weary psyche and cured stomach ailments. Opium was disparingly called heitu, "black dirt," for the tarry substance placed in long bamboo pipes. Addicts smoked it while stretched on benches in "dens" not too unlike today's "crack houses." In the early stages, opium induced euphoria. But habitual use left victims burnt-out husks of their former selves. In the final stages of addiction, it caused dementia and death. And victims more and more included nonaddicts. As opium smokers gathered, coughing and spitting, they unknowingly became infected with, and then spread to others, diseases as deadly in those days as AIDS is now, tuberculosis and influenza. At a time when such pressures as overpopulation, political infighting and declining revenues were also taking their toll, addiction raged through China's army and invaded the civil service. The effect was a rapid decline in provincial administration. Canals collapsed out of neglect, disrupting China's vital system of transportation. Pushing beyond endurance, the Chinese government closed its doors to all foreign goods and destroyed crates of opium stored in British warehouses in Canton. England declared war and its navy brutally defeated an inadequate Chinese fleet. As part of the treaty settling the "Opium War" of 1839-42, a shocked and demoralized China ceded the southern island of Hong Kong to Britain. This city, much like Miami, became the hub of the drug trade, from which criminal societies, like Mafia today, joined forces with foreign smugglers to disperse the drug everywhere. Peasant discontent erupted into a massive civil war, called the Taiping Rebellion, which cost as many as 30 million lives. Taking advantage of chaos, England, France, Germany and Russia carved up China like a ripe melon. By the end of the 19th century, five percent of China's population was addicted, over 22 million people. So much bullion flowed out of the country that the economy teetered on the verge of collapse. In 1912, the last emperor, Puyi, was forced from the throne. China floundered in the bloody strife of civil war and foreign invasion for almost four decades. Then Mao Zedong's Communists crushed all opposition, taking another 30 million lives and forcing millions out of their villages and into communes. Mao did away with opium, by eliminating the smokers. Only recently has China begun to stem its nearly two-century decline, which begun with the first self-indulgent puff on an opium pipe. HISTORY RECORDS a sad cycle: the great civilizations; Greek, Roman, Spanish and Chinese; fell by their own inner weakness before their military forces were vanquished. FidoNews 6-09 Page 8 27 Feb 1989 And if the United States ever does succumb, here too it will have been by our own hand. NOTE: Reprinted from readers Digest. Also, our address has changed here at KidsNews headquarters. Please note the 1:288/525 address for correspondence with the folks at KidsNews. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 9 27 Feb 1989 THE UNITEX ECHO IS NOW AVAIlABLE ON THE FIDONET BACKBONE The UNITEX CONFERENCE is now nationally distributed via the 'backbone' links in Fidonet. It is also available on uucp networks in the form of a Usenet mailing list. The conference originates from the UNITEX Network (1:107/701). UNITEX operates at 9600(PEP), 2400 and 1200 baud. Our data phone is (201) 795-0733. A large portion of the information provided by UNITEX is generated from information obtained from the interrogation of both mainframe United Nations databases and Dialcom database services. We have recently acquired access privileges to the UNICEF mainframe database in New York and to the UN databse in Geneva, Switzerland. We designed an automated procedure that scans several database index files and then selectively downloads key information areas into ascii text files. These files are then 'cleaned-up', edited and parsed for subject headers and TO: fields and are processed into FTSC compatible echo mail messages. These in turn are bundled into network packets and then routed via the network. In addition to the Echo Mail, we create a weekly file that consists of all the 'raw' source material that goes into the UNITEX Echo as 'official' news source material. Since we create these files every Friday, the naming convention is analogous to that used in Fidonet for weekly nodediffs and has the same file extension used for NODEDIFF.A??, etc. This facilitates file maintenance for those that maintain a weekly files area. The arced weekly files are called UNITEX.A?? and are, at present, file requestable from 107/701 between the hours of 11:00 PM and 3:00 AM. The file size ranges from 50K to 150K. If there are many requests for these files on a weekly basis, other distribution methods will be arranged. NOTE: An important issue that has come up from time-to-time is whether UNITEX is a read-only conference. The answer is NO. UNITEX encourages user response and inquires to the issuses raised. Please see below, Section C: Conferenece Rules & Guidelines for more details. A description and overview of UNITEX will follow. James Waldron, Ph.D is the Conference Moderator and Senior Director of UNITEX Network. Dorothy Nicklus is the Associate Conference Moderator and Co-director of the UNITEX Network. UNITEX: Data phone (201) 795-0733 Voice phone (201) 653-2806 FidoNews 6-09 Page 10 27 Feb 1989 A. CONFERENCE OVERVIEW UNITEX supplies and disseminates information that we obtain from United Nations mainframe databases and related sources. We have been a major advocate for the distribution of 'raw', uncensored and un-edited material obtained from official UN sources and are palying a key role in the acquistion and distribution of this information. It consists of UN press Releases, UN Radio News, International Press News, UNICEF Press Releases, Electronic Publishing (DIPA) and related UNICEF documents and Wordwide Disaster News and Relief Plans from UNDRONET. The conference was establised 18 months ago and had a limited distribution in the United States, Canada and Australia. I maintained approximately 12 to 16 direct links at any given time. Due to the interest generated in general and to the timely internatioanl news coverage in specific, vis a vis Soviet-US current affairs, Nobel Peace Prize Award to UN, renewed interest in US space efforts, etc., there has been a mushrooming effect resulting in many requests to receive the UNITEX Echo via the national 'backbone' distribution. B. CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION The issues that UNITEX presents are many and are dependent on current political topics of interest and timely international news. The key areas that we focus on are the following: Human Rights, Disarmament, Amnesty International (Action Alerts), African News, news from and about 3rd World and Developing Countries, World Peace Issues, Space News/NASA and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Worlwide Disaster News & Relief Programs, Technology Transfer and Information Exchange, International Ecological and Environmental Issues, World Health Organization Reports (International health issues, vaccines, etc), Reports from the General Assembly and World Bank (International finance, multi-national and inter-governmental joint ventures, etc) C. CONFERENCE GUIDELINES and RULES Currently, the readers of UNITEX are concerned scientists, educators, teachers and students, as well as governemnt officials, UN delegates and news journalists. Through the vehicle of this conference, UNITEX provides information and promotes information and data exchange on a two-way basis. One should exercise a certain level of 'diplomacy' when addressing issues or people in this conference. There is much to be gained by good-will, patience and understanding and nothing by rash, insensitive and mindless chatter. Think before you write and try to make intelligent thought provoking commentary and stay focused on the issues presented. FidoNews 6-09 Page 11 27 Feb 1989 UNITEX welcomes reader replies and user feedback. It is not a Read-Only conference *but* due to the sensitive nature of many of the international issues that are addressed and the scope and breadth of the distribution, it is strongly *advised* that the UNITEX Area allow only *private* replies to UNITEX (107/701) via netmail to allow for appropriate conference moderation. Individual inquires of a specific nature can be sent via netmail to UNITEX. Systems running Confmail or MGM as an echomail processor can allow echomail with private netmail replies. Simply define the UNITEX echo area as a local private area then Export using Confmail with UNITEX defined as an echo area in areas.bbs If the inquires are useful and of a general interest, then we will publish it in the UNITEX echo. This facilitates conference moderation since absolute moderation on the backbone is not possible. D. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND and PERSPECTIVE The United Nations plays a key role in several areas, such as, population and agricultural studies, world health and medical issues (imunization, new vaccines, treatment programs, etc), international peace agreements, treaties and security, international laws, peaceful uses of outer space, equal rights, human rights and the disemmination of information and international news. UNITEX is an advocate for these issuses and is also strongly commited to modern computer applications in the areas of software design and network development. Apart from our main goals as technology and information providers, UNITEX helps to make the goals and efforts of the United Nations more widely know, add to international understanding and reduce or eliminate misunderstanding. International news and new technological developments occuring in both the industrialized nations and in the developing nations is transmitted by UNITEX to all direct private links as well as to the Fidonet backbone distribution system. E. PURPOSE INFORMATION and THE CHALLENGE OF THE 90's The following is a summary of several points that were introduced by UNITEX to be discussed at the United Nations Special Session on Information occurring on June 13 - June 27, 1988: Advances in communications technology has exacerbated the gap between the developed and developing countries. Information and communications in an interdependent world effect the economy, trade, culture and the development of a nation. Aside from this, confusion about the United Nations FidoNews 6-09 Page 12 27 Feb 1989 is enormous. The ever widening gulf that exists between the developed industrialized nations and the undeveloped countries has been referred to as the "North-South information inequality". A pre-occupied concern of the developing countries is freedom of information (article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the information inequality that currently exists. To address these specific areas of concern, the UN has referred to the general topic of international co-operation and communication as the "New World Information and Communication Order" Co-operation between the North-South will provide the developing countries with up-to-date know-how and assist in the dissemination of fair coverage of the news about developing nations. Hopefuflly, UNITEX and the asscoiated nodes that link into this conference can help narrow this gap using effective, low-cost communication technology and decentralized wide- area networks that are a trademark of both the microcomputer networks (FidoNet) and the uucp networks (UseNet, etc). F. ASSOCIATED FILES Much of the original material that goes into the UNITEX Echo is abstracted from our weekly source text files (created from UN database sources) and are named UNITEX.A??. Since we create these files every Friday, the naming convention is analogous to that used in Fidonet for weekly nodelists and has the same file extension used for NODEDIFF.A??, etc. This will facilitate your file maintenance should you desire to acquire these files. At the present time, they can be file requested from 107/701 between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM. The file size ranges from 50K to 150K. If there are many requests for these files on a weekly basis, other distribution methods will be arranged. If there are any questions on any of this material, please direct them, via private netmail to: James Waldron Director, UNITEX Fidonet 1:107/701 Alternet 7:520/701 uucp --> Fidonet rutgers!rubbs!107!701!James_Waldron uucp --> UNITEX rutgers!rubbs!unitex waldron@newport.rutgers.edu or cucard!dasys1!jwaldron TCN 4005 FidoNews 6-09 Page 13 27 Feb 1989 Thank you for your co-operation and support........... ---------------------------------------------------------------- UNITEX is including the following article by Kevin Axleson to best describe the role of UNITEX as a host system for Action Alerts produced by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: SUBJECT: ai announcement for fidonews --------------------------------------------- An Invitation to Sponsor Amnesty International Activities on your Fido BBS AI is a worldwide nongovernmental organization working for human rights. When AI learns of a person anywhere in the world who is being tortured, executed, held incommunicado ("disappeared") by unidentified abductors, or detained for non-violent political reasons, AI's millions of members worldwide work together to pressure the responsible government officials to cease the abuse. The reality of human rights abuse around the world is that many people suffer terrible fates in anonymity. AI counters this by making real peoples' situations known and by coming rapidly to their protection. AI members have this great influence in the fate of others by virtue of specific and timely alerts members receive from AI's headquarters in London. These alerts tell who is suffering, what background there is on the situation, what international principles and protections can be requested on the victim's behalf, and exactly which government officials to write to. There are 400,000 members of AIUSA, 2,000 regularly meeting groups, and a number of specialized activities for medical, legal and other tasks related to defending prisoners. One of these activities is the "Urgent Action Network", which we invite you to consider hosting on your Fido BBS. We at the Urgent Action Network office postal-mail alerts about the most serious human rights concerns to a network of 12,000 persons in the USA. These alerts are telexed direct to us from AI's HQ, and often tell of persons who may be under torture or in other dire situations at the very moment we mail the alert. In addition to the US Postal network, we offer about 3 "Urgent Action Alerts" a week to computer users over a growing network of hosting electronic communications systems. We have delivered these alerts consistently now for a year and a half since we started on PeaceNet. In approaching the extensive world of PC BBSes, we have decided not to place this information over traditional echoes, but to offer it by file polling for systems who would be willing to work with us to present our information effectively and FidoNews 6-09 Page 14 27 Feb 1989 work with AI letterwriters on their systems. If you run a BBS which has a community interested in social issues, you may find our information to be a meaningful service to your readers. We invite you to contact us if you would like more information. We would like to have Fido BBS hosts throughout the USA. You would only need to make one file poll a week, receiving from 25 to 50kchar at up to 9600 baud, to participate effectively in the Online Urgent Action Network. You may examine our basic materials in file area 6 of the UNITEX BBS 1:107/701 and 7:520/701, located in New Jersey, phone 201-795-0733. We will be adding information to deepen the experience for letter writers; what you will see here is our simplest offering. Our information is also posted on many large commercial systems, most accessible of which might be CompuServe's "issuesforum", data library 15. Please do not repost these materials, rather, contact us to be tied in directly. The coordinator of the "Online Urgent Action Network" for AIUSA is Kevin Axelson, who may be reached at UNITEX: 107/701 kevin axelson, CompuServe: 76414,447, and uucp: !rutgers!hombre!kaxelson. If you have difficulty with any of these connections, you may also telephone to the UA office at 303-440-0913, between 9AM and 5PM weekdays, Mountain Standard Time. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 15 27 Feb 1989 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 22: Why Anyone Would Run a BBS Yes, this is a strange hobby we partake in. We spend a lot of money to buy a computer. Then we spend more money getting a hard disk for it. We spend more money getting a modem. Then we discover bulletin boards and decide to run one. In some cases, this warrants more hard drive and maybe a faster modem. More money invested in this computer. We fight with unfriendly software and poor documentation. We struggle with utilities to make our boards run more the way we'd like them to, and we change software when something new comes out that does something we'd like. We spend hours setting up programs and control files. We wait anxiously for certain events to happen which, due to cost-effectiveness, must occur at wee hours of the o-dark hundred. We babysit and lament our machines, and tinker incessantly with the configurations. And we argue and complain about the way things are or are not done. All this just to make our computers able to be used by OTHER people. Now wait a minute. Where's the logic? Well, as most of the diehards will tell you, it's the sheer joy of running a BBS. For some, helping other people (i.e., the users) is where the joy is at. For some, it's the mastery of the system and software. For others, it's the pure challenge of technowizardry. And for some it's just a neat idea. It's a hobby. No matter how you look at it, it is a hobby. Some take it more seriously than others, but in all respects it can be lived without. It's a way to fill up some spare time. Okay, ALL of your spare time. But it's a time filler. That's all. Everything else - the helping part, the mastery part, the challenge part, the nostalgia - these things are extra benefits obtained by running a BBS. Unfortunately, as with most things in life, the benefits are accompanied by some drawbacks: The late hours, the frustrating configuration processes, the flames, the hardware investments, the hackers trying to break in and the viruses that succeed. YOU have to decide whether or not it's worth it for you. Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks in YOUR mind? If not, don't run a BBS. Run a Point node or just be a user. But don't complain to me because you made a bad choice. You made it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 16 27 Feb 1989 ================================================================= LATEST VERSIONS ================================================================= Latest Software Versions Bulletin Board Software Name Version Name Version Name Version Fido 12K* Opus 1.03b TBBS 2.1 QuickBBS 2.03 TPBoard 5.0 TComm/TCommNet 3.2 Lynx 1.22 Phoenix 1.3 RBBS 1.71D Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90C* EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.32 SEAdog 4.50* MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 2.0* BinkleyTerm 2.00 Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 D'Bridge 1.10 XlatList 2.90* TPB Editor 1.21 FrontDoor 2.0 XlaxNode 2.32* TCOMMail 2.0 PRENM 1.40 XlaxDiff 2.32* TMail 8901* ParseList 1.30 UFGATE 1.02* GROUP 2.04* EMM 1.40 MSGED 1.96 * 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 6-09 Page 17 27 Feb 1989 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 8 May 1989 Digital Equipment Corporations User Society (DECUS) will be holding its semi-annual symposium in Atlanta, GA. Runs through May 12. As usual sysop's will get together and chat. 19 May 1989 Start of EuroCon III at Eindhoven, The Netherlands 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 24 Aug 1989 FidoCon '89 starts at the Holiday Inn in San Jose, California. Trade show, seminars, etc. Contact 1/89 for info. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-09 Page 18 27 Feb 1989 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 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871 18 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 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 6-09 Page 19 27 Feb 1989 __ 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------