Volume 6, Number 10 6 March 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 SEA Letter: Kitten 2.00 .................................. 1 2. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 6 Latest Software Versions ................................. 6 3. NOTICES .................................................. 7 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 7 FidoNews 6-10 Page 1 6 Mar 1989 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= What's Happening at SEA? Just what the world needs -- another BBS program! Well, since everyone else has written one, why not us? Some of you may already be familiar with Kitten 1.00 -- the world's tiniest BBS program. Kitten didn't do much; no message bases, no uploads, no games, nothing but a bulletin and a short list of files for download. But if that was all you needed, then Kitten was the best choice because she was so easy to set up. In version 2.00 Kitten has grown up a bit. She can still be the simple, unassuming system she was before, and when she is she's just as easy to set up as ever. But if you tell her to, Kitten can grow into a real LION! o Unlimited message bases. o Five access levels and up to sixteen access control flags. o An unlimited number of menus -- all fully definable by you. o "Hacker control" from the simple to the sublime -- limited only by your own imagination. o Conditional menus, allowing menu flexibility unheard of in a BBS program. o The ability to run "outside" programs with full redirection (see what the user sees, and you can type too) and a built-in watchdog for carrier AND for session time limit. o File upload/download ability to an unlimited number of file areas, with file access under your control at all times. To see a sample of just how WILD a Kitten can get, check out Irene & Leo's Funhouse at (201) 473-5371 (outside of business hours only, please). Kitten 2.00 comes complete with copious documentation and two sample configurations to get you started. Whether your needs are simple or incredible, you owe it to yourself to take a look at Kitten! Files mentioned this week: KITTEN.ARC The Kitten BBS package. FidoNews 6-10 Page 2 6 Mar 1989 KITTEN.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: USNO ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-10 Page 3 6 Mar 1989 Nodelist Flags and Brownshirts Evolution, Growth, and Political Structures In any society, there is a continual problem of the rules and rulemakers not always being able to keep up with the technologies that drive the society. FidoNet is no exception, and the nodelist flags is a golden example of this. The defacto standard for nodelist flags has been considerably different than the written standards for quite some time. Recently, the FTSC has attempted to bring them closer to parity in the form of a new FTS-0005. Threatened Actions By A Now-ExRC When I was an RC, one of the things that irked me in a big way was a threat by another RC to drop any nodes whose flags did not correspond to the written spec. That RC commissioned a program that would seek and comment out any nodes not in compliance. I did not, and do not, see why a node that has flags that don't match a written spec should be dropped from the nodelist, except in those cases where it clearly indicates bad faith on the part of the sysop. For instance, saying CM when you are not. But to be dropped because you have AKA:xxxx setting seems more than a little bogus to me. That's a problem between an RC and an NC, since it's the NC who prepares the entries, not the sysop. If totally illegal values are coming in a given NC's segment, you fire the creator of the segment, not the nodes being ill-represented. This is the kind of thing that scares me most about FidoNet - we seem to have two extremes for rules - either they don't apply at all, or we are going to use them as excuses for ax grinding. User Flags Primary Intent On My Part: To Give Lee Kemp A Place For Keys In direct recognition of the fact that our political structures in FidoNet don't work well or efficiently, I pressed to have the user flags added to the FTSC spec. The intent of these flags was to provide a place for people to try new things out in the nodelist without rigamarole from the coordinator structure. To legally provide for a mechanism for the organic growth that is clearly needed - a place where ideas can be tried, and either flourish, die, or be incorporated into some idea, without some hardass coordinator imposing his world view on what is supposed to be an egalitarian network. My specific, short term intent was to provide Lee Kemp with a place to store PKSCrypt keys in his nodelist entry. Later in this article, you'll see how. FidoNews 6-10 Page 4 6 Mar 1989 Growing Out of The User Realm Implicit in this is the assumption that some user flags will migrate to the more standard flags. For instance, once everyone agreed on some mechanism for encoding a signature key (from attempts in the user flags), the mechanism might be standardized by the FTSC, and moved into the "standard" flags area. Coordinator Actions In Hindsight, The Coordinator Flags Were Suggested As an afterthought, I suggested that a second, parallel set of flags be created, called Coordinator flags. This was suggested because the FTSC nodelist specification serves a number of networks. The coordinator flags would allow a particular local political structure to have it's own set of flags implemented in such a way that any robust, general purpose nodelist processor would not barf, while still keeping the "garden" of the user flags free from intervention. The uses that came to mind for this related to things like identifying EchoMail hubs, SDS nodes, etc. These flags could be added ONLY with the approval of the given coordinator structure, where in the case of the user flags, the coordinator structure would have little, if any, say over. As Usual, Coordinators Usurping The Users of the Network But as it stands, the coordinators of FidoNet have decided to take it upon themselves to use and control the User flags, while the FTSC has ignored the coordinator flags. As usual, you and I are left at the mercy of a bunch of people who didn't understand the intent to begin with. Par for the course. I guess I should have expected this. For once, let's get them to do it right. Tell your NC you want to use your User Flags for just that - user flags, and if the coordinators want some flags to control, let them get their own. For now, just ask your NC for the USER_NOT_*C_FLAG! flag. If you have an AKA or PN flag, have them make it an UAKA or UPN flag. That's what they were created for. You. Not them. If he tells you he can't, ask him when the coordinators are going to live by the rules they've written rather than the ones they make up along the way? JonesNose Flags I have submitted a request to my NC for the following flags: UPN5555,PK2E5F9D0D0999 FidoNews 6-10 Page 5 6 Mar 1989 PN5555 means I use private net 5555. The latter is a 7 digit PKSCrypt key set, packed as two, six digit hexadecimal values. (If someone would be kind enough to netmail me a copy of what they think the key would look like, I'd be much obliged.) Harry Lee 1:321/202@FidoNet ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-10 Page 6 6 Mar 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 6-10 Page 7 6 Mar 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 6-10 Page 8 6 Mar 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 6-10 Page 9 6 Mar 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------