Volume 6, Number 16 17 April 1989 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Dale Lovell 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 a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. 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. We don't necessarily agree with the contents of every article published here. Most of these materials are unsolicited. No article will be rejected which is properly attributed and legally acceptable. We will publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Announcement of Eurocon III 1989 ......................... 2 GATEWAY '89 .............................................. 4 New version of PAKIT, a utility for oMMM users ........... 11 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 15 The Veterinarian's Corner: Feline Leukemia ............... 15 Notes From Bureaucracy South ............................. 17 4. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 19 Latest Software Versions ................................. 19 And more! FidoNews 6-16 Page 1 17 Apr 1989 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Hello there. I've been meaning to write a little something here for several weeks now and just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe next week I'll find the time. The major reason that I decided to key in anything at all this week was to let you know that next week we will publish responses to the Policy4 issue of FidoNews. As it appears that these responses are on the LONG side, the odds are that we won't publish any other articles next week, though whether we publish columns or not will be a function of how much space the articles take up. Thanks for reading this rag. I think it's a pretty good one. By the way, feel free to help keep it that way by sending along some material for publication. Cheers, Vince ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 2 17 Apr 1989 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Announcement of Eurocon III 1989. At Eurocon II European sysops have agreed that some sort of central European organization should be formed which should control or administer European FidoNet. Several committees have been appointed to draft proposals for such an organization. As the committees have nearly concluded their work we wish to invite you to take part in the process of whether or not to form a European organization. The principal idea is to establish an organization which could be named European FidoNet Association, or EFNA. It would not be meant as a separation from International FidoNet but as an organization which would represent Zone 2 FidoNet sysops in IFNA. Thus we would have a start in reorganizing IFNA in which e.g. American FNA, European FNA and Oceanic FNA would take part. To discuss the proposals, we are organizing a conference called EuroCon III in the weekend of May 19, 20 and 21 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. We are currently in the process of inviting some introducing speakers. Apart from the official part of the conference we are organizing an interesting tour. Also, the Dutch HCC and PCC are inviting you to a drink on Thursday evening. The main theme at EuroCon III will be "Democracy and European FidoNet". Attached you will find a registration form. The filled in form can be sent to: Hans Ligthelm of 2:500/30, or Joop Mellaart of 2:512/0. (If you have a problem with the nodelist: Joop's AKA is 2:2/1) We have tried to offer you excellent hotel accomodations for a reasonable price. The reservation procedure has changed a bit but price and quality are the same as in 1988. We hope to meet a lot of you so that we can have a succesful European conference. Cheers, Peter. (Secretary of the EuroCon III organization committee) ---------------------------------------------------------------- EUROCON III REGISTRATION FORM ---------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Address: FidoNews 6-16 Page 3 17 Apr 1989 City: Country: Phone (voice): Phone (node): FidoNet address: Thursday: May 18th Dinner/Room/Breakfast @ Dfl 110 yes/no Dfl ...... Friday : May 19th Lunch @ Dfl 17.50 yes/no Dfl ...... Dinner/Room/Breakfast @ Dfl 110 yes/no Dfl ...... Saturday: May 20th Lunch @ Dfl 17.50 yes/no Dfl ...... Dinner/Room/Breakfast @ Dfl 110 yes/no Dfl ...... Sunday : May 21st Lunch @ Dfl 17.50 yes/no Dfl ...... Dinner/Room/Breakfast @ Dfl 110 yes/no Dfl ...... Conference Fee ............................... Dfl 40.- Late registration Fee (after APRIL 15th) @ Dfl 100.-............... Dfl ...... ----------+ Total ........................................ Dfl ...... I agree to share my room with: ......................... (name) (subtract Dfl 37.50 per night) Dfl ...... ---------- Amount due ................................... Dfl ...... I am alone but I want to try to arrange for a roommate:...yes/no I am:................................................male/female My roommate must be:............smoker/non-smoker/doesn't matter City: Date: Please sign: ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 4 17 Apr 1989 GATEWAY '89 VISCOUNT HOTEL - QUEENS, NEW YORK - APRIL 28-30, 1989 Telephone Number (516) 678-7180 Conferences will be available through out the duration of the convention. Tickets for individual seminars will be available during the convention at a first come, first serve basis. Tickets for forums sponsored by corporations having booths at GATEWAY '89 will have tickets available at their booths. Contact the individual exhibitor for further information and details. SCHEDULE Friday - April 28,1989 12 pm - Opening & Welcome Speeches 1 pm - Gary Saxer - Technical Director - Quarterdeck Systems The Future of DOS - Will You Be Forced To Abandon It? DOS has become the most popular operating system on the planet Earth. Millions of people use it every day. Now OS/2 and Unix are being offered to PC users to enhance the capabilities of their computers. Do you need to change? Maybe not. This seminar will cover how DOS can be used far into the future. There are ways to get DOS to manage almost all of the features of these other operating systems, and yet still use much of the hardware and software you ave today. Find out how DOS can be improved, expanded, and extended. 2-______________________________________________________________ 3 pm - Eric Brown - Senior Executive Editor - PC World Magazine Eric Brown, well known in the Personal Computer Industry will be addressing the Gateway VAR seminar regarding LANs and electronic communications in regard to local E-mail (electronic mail) systems and gateways. Through the extensive work which Eric has been doing with PC World Magazine he brings a refreshing and vital conference to Gateway '89. 4 pm - Andre Peterson - Cofounder of WordPerfect Corporation Andre Peterson will be addressing the Consultants and VAR Conference at GATEWAY '89 on the various products and enhancements of WordPerfect Corporation. As on of the leaders at one of the most successful software corporations in the industry, Mr. Peterson, will be presenting many of the successful products of the WordPerfect Corporation, along with in depth details on their utilizations to the fullest. 5 pm - John Nels - Eastern Regional Director - Intel Corporation FidoNews 6-16 Page 5 17 Apr 1989 The directions that the Intel Corporation will take in the 1990's will have a very substantial effect on the PC market and the systems that corporations, clients and hobbyists will be purchasing. John Nels will be speaking on behave of Intel and the directions of their product line. 80286, 80386 and 80486 are some of the numbers that we will be hearing during this seminar. John will also be speaking on the other Intel products such as the Inboard systems. 6 pm - Phil Becker - Handling the growing pressure for multi-user data access. Database, Electronic Mail, and Bulletin Board applications are often the major driving forces in going multi-user with computers. eSoft, Inc. will be discussing its Single CPU, PC-DOS based, dBASE compatible multi-user system which provides these capabilities for up to 32 simultaneous users without the hardware or software complexity of many other approaches. Saturday - April 29, 1989 10 am - Richard Driggers - Sparta BBS & Great Alabama PCBoard Hard Drive Seminar 11 am - Gary Saxer - Technical Director - Quarterdeck Systems Expanded and Extended Memory - What is it? How do you use it? For PC-DOS computers, the amount of memory you have is not always as important as what kindof memory it is. Some people wonder how it can be that they have 2 megabytes of memory and yet they can only use 640K of it. Gary Saxer, one of the country's top experts on DOS memory, will explain the differences between Conventional, Reserved, Extended, Expanded, Enhanced Expanded, and EMS4 memory. Tips on how to get the best out of your current memory and methods to improve memory use and availability will be covered. Also, methods to convert useless memory into memory that DOS can handle will be explained. 12 pm - Marshall Magee - Founder of the Association of Shareware Professionals Marshall Magee will be addressing the seminar on Shareware. Shareware, which is software that is distributed by the author on a "pay if you like it basis", provides the many owners of PC Computers with the golden opportunities to sample many programs to improve productivity on an individual system, without investing thousands of dollars in commercially distributed software. Author of Automenu, one of the most successful shareware programs on the market, Marshall will further discuss the means of making shareware work for the programer who is contemplating releasing programs to the market. FidoNews 6-16 Page 6 17 Apr 1989 1 pm - John Friel - author of Qmodem telecommunications software John will be discussing the present state of telecommunications software with an emphasis on the direction that telecommunications will be taking in the coming decade. 2 pm - Phil Katz - author of PKZIP file compression routines Graduate of the University of Wisconsin, 1984-founded PKware in 1986. Conference to include the following discussions: 1. Overview of data compression: What is data compression? What can it be used for? Why is it useful? 2. Overview of basic data compression theory: How does data compress compression work? 3. History of data compression theory: PDP-11 'RAD50' codes, Non-Repeat Packing, Weighted Huffman Trees. 4. Description of modern data compression algorithms: Ziv-Lempel-Welch encoding, Huffman Squeezing, Repeated String Elimination, Optimal follower Sets. 5. Demonstration of PKZIP and PKUNZIP, showing the execution of the algorithms and theory previously discussed. 3 pm - Gus Venditto - Senior Executive Editor - PC Magazine SHAREWARE IN THE '90s -- CAN IT SURVIVE OS/2? The Microsoft mulit-tasking juggernaut threatens to change the face of personal computing. How can the grass-roots shareware movement continue when corporations are planning to remove DOS from user's systems? Will shareware be driven back into the garage? Come and hear Gus Venditto, PC Magazine Executive Editor and author of the magazine's Pipeline section, report on the future. 4 pm - Bob Wallace - author of PC Write Bob Wallace, Quicksoft founder (1983) and the person who coined the term, shareware, will talk about Quicksoft's mission; the subtleties of shareware, including group shareware; new products PC-Write 3.0, PC-Look, PC Write Lite, and PC-Write 3.1; and the future of personal computing, including the myth of the standard user interface and the holoroom interface. 5 pm - Judy Getts - Contributing Editor - PC World Magazine Judy Getts, well known for her recent articles in PC World Magazine for Shareware products, will bediscussing a topic which is always of interest to the general user group. Recognition and distribution of programs and software. Each and every day, hundreds of excellent pieces of software are written and its authors are trying to seek the most opportune means for distribution. Judy will be addressing the specific topic of "recognition of software by software houses". There is no set formula or procedure to have one's finest program picked up by a major vendor in the industry, but there are suggestions which Judy would like to address which will open more opportunities to the software programer than may have been available in the past. FidoNews 6-16 Page 7 17 Apr 1989 Sunday - April 30, 1989 8:30 am - Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. - Sysops Breakfast A special reserved conference limited to 150 people sponsored by the Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. to present the Impact of Telecommunications Standards on the BBS Community in addition to the Hayes SysOp Support Programs and SysOps as Advanced Systems Value Added Resellers (ASVAR's), and the Hayes Product line. Tickets will distributed directly at the Hayes booth during GATEWAY '89. 12 pm - BBS Authors Round Table Meet the authors and designers of Bulletin Board Software A seminar and open discussion table with some of the most well known authors of BBS software as an opportunity to discuss the future of bulletin boards in the 1990's! Tom Mack - author of RBBS software David Terry - co-author of PCBoard software Phil Becker - author of TBBS software Thom Henderson - author of SEAdog software Rick Hemming - author of Wildcat and Mustang software Ken Goosens - assisting author of RBBS software Mark Herring - author of Qmail software Dan Domain - author of DBBS software 2 pm - Gary Saxer - Technical Director - Quarterdeck Systems Optimizing Telecommunications under Multi-tasking Many people use DESQview to run several programs at the same time, often called multi-tasking. Those who use communications programs along with other programs are especially concerned withperformance and reliability. Gary Saxer, Director of Technical Services for Quarterdeck Office Systems, the developers of DESQview, will explain several tricks and important rules for running communications programs in the background. Starting with the basic concepts and proceeding to very technical details, the seminar will cover both the hardware and software aspects of multi-tasking communications programs. 3 pm - Jud Newell - Sysop of Canadian Remote Systems Jud Newell is the owner and chief Sysop of Canada Remote Systems, a 66 node PCBoard system operating out of Toronto, Canada. From a single line system in 1981, CRS has grown to be one of North America's largest bulletin boards, and the largest single PCBoard installation in the world. Jud will talk on what makes a bulletin board successful, and how you can turn a profit in running one. With over 7,000 paying subscribers and an annual growth rate of 60%, Jud has a great deal of experience in satisfying customers. Learn how to make your BBS profitable. 4 pm - Jim Spinelli - Attorney and Sysop of the Activity BBS (New York) Jim will be discussing in an open forum the legal operations of a FidoNews 6-16 Page 8 17 Apr 1989 bulletin board. Many young and old sysops hesitate to realize the legal responsibilities they have to the public in operating a public bbs system. Jim will be reviewing the sysop's operations and the responsibilities that the sysop has to his users as well as the limitations that the users have on a public bulletin board system. 5 pm - Marshall MaGee - Founder of the Association of Shareware Authors Marshall will be addressing the Sysop's Conference with one of the most important topics regarding the public bulletin board systems. The distribution of SHAREWARE and the responsibilities of the BBS sysops to both the shareware authors and to the general users to whom they provide the software. Marshall is also the sysop of the "Big Peach BBS" in Atlanta, Georgia, and a long time modem user. Marshall will be specifically addressing the future of shareware distribution in the 1990's on bulletin boards. 6 pm - Close of GATEWAY '89 VISCOUNT HOTEL - QUEENS, NEW YORK - APRIL 28-30, 1989 - All conferences and forums will be held in the Starlight Room at the Viscount Hotel Gateway '89 - Seminar Registration & Exhibit Entrance I wish to point out to everyone that GATEWAY '89 tickets are to be ordered in advanced, must be done, via the BBS systems and networks. If you are calling the Sound of Music BBS directly, please return to the Main Board, and complete cript #7 right from the Main Board. You MUST prepay your ticket purchase in order to receive the advance purchase discount. Advance Ticket orders must be received by April 17, 1989 for processing at the advance ticket price of $5.00 (add $1.00 for handling). All orders received after that date will be returned. Tickets at the GATEWAY '89 doors will be $10.00. Entrance fees are specifically for the booth and exhibits of Gateway '89. Conference tickets are defined as follows. Conferences and seminars are being sold on a Daily Basis. The complete up to the latest schedule is posted as the file, GATFORUM.ZIP available for downloading. The cost of the conferences is as follows: Daily Conference Entrance: $30.00 /day Conference Pass: ALL THREE DAYS: $75.00 FidoNews 6-16 Page 9 17 Apr 1989 Be sure when ordering tickets for an individual conference that you indicate on your order the SPECIFIC day that you are ordering tickets for. Exhibit Hours: Friday - April 28, 1989 - 12 Noon - 7 pm. Saturday - April 29, 1989 - 10 AM - 6 pm. Sunday - April 30, 1989 - 10 AM - 6 pm. Seminars: VAR's & Consultants Forum 4/28/89 Phil Katz will be speaking on Saturday 4/29/89. BBS sysops and telecommunications forum 4/30/89. PAYMENT MUST ACCOMPANY YOUR ORDER IN ORDER FOR YOUR REQUEST TO BE PROCESSED. CONFERENCES ARE SOLD ON FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. SEATING IS LIMITED! Do not call the Gateway office to order tickets. Payment must be complete at time of order. Sorry, no credit cards are accepted for Gateway '89. If you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask via any of the Smartnet/PCRelay networks which are now carrying the Gateway Conference. The latest Gateway '89 information is available via Smartnet, PC Relay GATEWAY conference. Be sure to visit the conference for the latest information. Sound of Music BBS (516) 536-8723 GATEWAY '89 Telephone Number (516) 678-7180 NAME: ______________________________________________________________ ADDRESS: ______________________________________________________________ CITY: ___________________________ STATE _________ ZIP_________ DAY TELEPHONE NUMBER: ____________________________ CONFERENCE(S): ALL CONFERENCES ($75.00) NO. OF TICKETS _______ FRIDAY: VAR'S & CONSULTANTS 4/28/89 ($30.00)____ SATURDAY: SHAREWARE & USERS 4/29/89 ($30.00)____ SUNDAY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS & SYSOPS FORUMS 4/30/89 ($30.00)____ FidoNews 6-16 Page 10 17 Apr 1989 TOTAL NUMBER OF TICKETS: ____ TOTAL ENCLOSED: $_______ MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: S.O.M. LTD. MAIL TO: GATEWAY '89 119 A NORTH PARK AVENUE ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY. 11570 TELEPHONE NO: (516) 678-7180 Gateway '89 - the TRADESHOW to EDUCATE the CONSUMER !!! Gateway '89 information is available ELECTRONICALLY 24 hours/day on the Sound of Music BBS (516) 536-8723 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 11 17 Apr 1989 Jack Decker Fidonet 1:154/8 LCRnet 77:1011/8 NetWork 8:70/8 NEW VERSION OF PAKIT, A UTILITY FOR OMMM USERS (Plus a suggestion for Nodelist User Flag usage) A few weeks ago, I placed an announcement about PAKIT in Fidonews. PAKIT has undergone a couple of revisions since then, however, with the main changes being that PAKIT can now be used to create outbound mail archives using the ZOO or ZIP formats, if you have ZOO.EXE and/or PKZIP.EXE. So, if you use oMMM and have a desire to use better compression methods when creating mail packets for certain nodes (and you know those nodes are capable of uncompressing the mail archives you create for them), you can now use just about any of the popular compression methods if you use PAKIT (more on that in a minute). The question arises, "If I am sending mail to a node that I don't normally communicate with, how can I tell what types of compressed mail packets they are able to accept?" In fact, it would be nice to have this information readily available for any node that we might wish to communicate with. A solution to that problem may be at hand. As many of you know, the Fidonet nodelist now allows User-Defined flags. It would seem to me that specifying that a node can handle various types of compressed mail packets would be a valid use for these flags, since a substantial amount of connect time could be saved if better compression methods were used between systems capable of doing so. Unfortunately, different sysops have different ideas about what constitutes the "best" method of compression. Some prefer to stick with the "Fidonet standard" ARC file format. Others prefer ZOO because no payment is requested for using ZOO (unfortunately, ZOO is one of the least efficient compression methods for mail packets). Yet others prefer PAK's "Crushing" method, which is much more efficient, especially on small .PKT files, while some have found that PKZIP provides the highest possible compression ratio. Some systems can process incoming mail packets in any of these formats, while others can only handle one or two of them. Therefore, I propose that a user-defined flag be set aside for the purpose of defining types of compressed mail packets accepted by a node. Something on the order of: Flag format: UMC:x[x[x]] U indicates a User Flag, MC stands for "Method of Compression". The letters following the colon (which could be in any order) would include one or more of the following: C = unCrushing supported (PAK) - implies unSquashing & unCrunching also supported S = unSquashing supported (PKUNPAK, PKXARC, newer versions of ARCE) - implies unCrunching also supported N = unCrunching NOT supported (not valid with C or S) R = unReducing supported (PKUNZIP) FidoNews 6-16 Page 12 17 Apr 1989 Z = unZooing supported (ZOO) Limitations: C implies unSquashing and unCrunching, so C and S should NOT be used together N implies unCrunching NOT supported, therefore it's not valid in combination with either C or S (at least not when any existing software that I'm aware of is used, since anything that will unCrush or unSquash will also unCrunch). Samples: A node that uses PAK, ZOO, and PKUNZIP to process incoming mail packets would use the flag: UMC:CRZ A node (probably a non-MSDOS node) that cannot process regular ARC style mail packets, but that CAN handle packets compressed with ZOO, would use the flag: UMC:NZ A node that uses ARC or an older version of ARCE that does not support unSquashing, plus PKUNZIP to process incoming mail packets would use: UMC:R (Note that if the N flag is not used, unCrunching capability is assumed). Now, the above is just a proposal. At the present time, PAKIT is not capable of directly reading the nodelist to obtain this information. However, if folks were to start using this type of notation (or if the FTSC were to put their blessing on something like this), it would make it worthwhile to rewrite PAKIT (or a similar program) to go directly to the nodelist for this information, instead of using a separate control file. End of editorial comment. Now, back to PAKIT. PAKIT is a free utility program intended for use with oMMM, although it may work with other mail packers that call ARCA to create mail archives. Just in case you missed the article of a few weeks back, here's the pertinent information again (slightly rewritten to be correct for the latest version): PAKIT Version 1.04 - a semi-intelligent ARCA to PAK/ZIP/ZOO Converter for use with oMMM. No warranty expressed or implied - use at your own risk! PAKIT was written to allow you to create smaller outgoing mail FidoNews 6-16 Page 13 17 Apr 1989 archives (*.mo? files, etc.) for systems that can accept them, by using any of several different file compression utility programs (PAK, ZOO, and/or PKWARE programs) with oMMM version 1.07 or higher (it will probably work with earlier versions of oMMM as well, but you should upgrade anyway! Do NOT use oMMM version 1.08, though, it was buggy). Those who use oMMM may be aware that oMMM calls ARCA for file compression purposes. PAKIT intercepts the call to ARCA, translates it to a format that another file compression utility can understand, and then hands it over to that utility. While PAKIT is specifically designed for use with oMMM, it MAY also work with other packers that call ARCA using the "/D" parameter at the end of the invocation line. PAKIT was originally intended to be used with NoGate Consulting's PAK File Compression Utility, and still defaults to the use of PAK (it now requires PAK version 1.5 or higher), however you may also optionally specify that PKWARE's PKARC or PKPAK program is to be called when creating "Crunched" or "Squashed" mail archives (these programs are no longer available from PKWARE, but may still be available on some BBS's). You also have the option of using ZIP ("Reducing") or ZOO as the compression method to be used for mail packets. If you use this program and PAK without a PAKIT.CTL file, the resulting mail archive files should be no different than if you had just used ARCA only (obviously, there's no real advantage in doing that, but you can do it if you want to). The major advantage in using this program is that you can use a control file called PAKIT.CTL, which will allow you to specify which compression method, or which of PAK's three possible compression levels, will be used when packing mail to any given node. Thus, if you KNOW that a particular node is using PKWARE's PKXARC (or PKUNPAK) program to de-archive mail packets, you can create mail packets using "Squashing", which will make smaller packets and possibly save you some transmission time. If you regularly communicate with a node that uses PAK to unpack mail, you can create mail bundles using "Crushing" and save even more disk space and transmission time. And, the most recent versions of PAKIT will allow you to create compressed mail bundles using ZOO.EXE or PKWARE's PKZIP program, should you have a need to send mail bundles in one of those formats. These options should only be used with nodes with which you communicate regularly, and know what program is being used to uncompress mail packets. The current version of PAKIT renames individual .PKT files prior to placing them in the mail archive, in order to assure that older files are always placed before newer ones in the archive. This is done to overcome a difference in operation between ARCA and PKARC/PKPAK/PAK 1.0. ARCA always added packets to the END of an existing archive (as does PAK 1.5+ if the "/O-" modifier is used), but some of the newer programs do us the favor(?) of inserting new files into an existing archive in alphabetical order. oMMM creates packets using a naming sequence that restarts every day, thus packets created just after midnight would be stored in the archive BEFORE packets created on the previous day (when one of the newer archivers is used). The result is that replies to messages are FidoNews 6-16 Page 14 17 Apr 1989 sometimes stored prior to the original messages when the destination system unpacks the mail! PAKIT attempts to overcome this problem by renaming the packets using a naming sequence that restarts at the beginning of every year, rather than every day. Thus, it is only possible to create out-of-order mail packets at the beginning of January. The packet names used contain only the hexadecimal digits 0-9 and A-F, and are always eight characters long (not counting the .PKT extension). As far as I can determine, this will not cause any problem for any existing mail unpacker, but please let me know if you discover otherwise. Version 1.04 of PAKIT has just been released, and is compatible with the newer releases of oMMM (1.30 and higher). Older versions of PAKIT (before 1.02) will most likely not work properly with the newer versions of oMMM. The most recent copy of PAKIT should be file requestable from Fidonet node 1:154/7 (aka LCRnet node 77:1011/7 or NetWork node 8:70/7), under the filename PAKIT*.ZIP (at this writing, PAKIT104.ZIP is the latest version). 1:154/7 is a mail-only node located in Milwaukee, and is PC Pursuitable. If you are located in a PC Pursuitable city and for some reason can't make a file request work, send me a message and I'll try file attaching it to you. By the way, there's no copyright notice or request for payment (or anything else) anywhere in PAKIT. It's a gift to anyone who wants it, pure and simple! If you find an archiving program that creates archives that are even smaller than "Crushed" or "Reduced" files (particularly if it's truly public domain, or at least free to non-commercial users), please send a copy of the program to me and I will at least consider making a version of this program that will use it. Also, if the Fidonet (or any "other" net) nodelist is ever modified to include a "compression level" flag for mail archives, I will consider rewriting this program to look directly to the nodelist for compression level information. Jack Decker (1:154/8, 77:1011/8, 8:70/8 <== Don't file request PAKIT from these addresses, this is a private node!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 15 17 Apr 1989 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= The Veterinarian's Corner Excerpts from the ANIMED GroupMail Conference by Don Thomson, 1:102/1005 The feline leukemia virus is a contagious virus limited to members of the cat family. It recieved its name, because it is one of the types of virus' that have the ability to cause cancer of the white cells. The disease caused by the feline leukemia virus can take any number of forms. Because the virus attacks and suppresses the body's immune response, an increased suseptibility to infections of all types is commonly one of the first signs. Long standing 'cold' symptoms, repeated abscesses, oral infections, an increased susceptibility to pneumonia, and other internal infections may occur. If the animal recovers from these types of opportunistic infections, the virus, hidden in the bone marrow and lymph nodes, begins to manifest itself. The feline leukemia virus (FeLV) has the ability to become intermingled with the DNA of the primitve, dividing bone marrow cells. This most commonly manifests itself as a severe 'aplastic' anemia. Occasionally cancer of the white cells of the bone marrow (leukocytes) may cause cancer of the while cells, hence the name 'leukemia' virus. More commonly the FeLV will cause cancer of the lymph nodes, similar to Hodgkins Disease of man. What can be done to prevent this disease? Because the virus is shed most heavily in the saliva, and to lessor extent in urine, feces, and tears, limiting 'community' food bowls from which stray cats of unknown status will decrease the spread of the virus. If your cat is an outdoor cat, vaccination is reccommended. The odds are quite high that your cat will be exposed to the virus as approximately 90% of outdoor The disease is most prevalent in multiple cat households, where repeated high-level exposure of virus allows the actual infection to overwhelm the cat's immune response. Most intermittant, low level exposures do not result in actual infection. But if you have more than one cat, they should be tested for 'latent' or inapparent infection and vaccination. If found to be negative, then they should be vaccinated. Strictly indoor cats, tested negative, probably don't require vaccination because this is a relative fragile virus, not long lived in the environment. There is no 'cure' for the disease once contracted other than supportive, symptomatic treatment. The best cure possible for this killer is prevention. ---------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 16 17 Apr 1989 More on cats: Cats are not just 'scaled down' versions of humans as far as how their bodies handle many medications! For example: 1 Tylenol caplet can kill a cat, by causing the hemoglobin of the red blood cells to no longer be capable of oxygen binding and transport! Sad sight.... 1 baby aspirin will last up to FOUR DAYS in the bloodstream of your cat. Overdoses can and DO occur by well-meaning people, giving their pets human medications. PLEASE CHECK with a veterinarian BEFORE administering ANY medication to your cat. DB Thomson, DVM 1:102/1005 9:871/16 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 17 17 Apr 1989 The following is the first in a series of four columns Fred Grosby (a federal government employee, and a user on "The Falcon's Rock") has written. He deserves all the credit for writing them. I suggested that he upload them to my system, because I enjoyed reading them in our local Mensa newsletter, Capital M. I hope you enjoy reading them, too. The archive of all four is available for file request from 1:109/501 as BSOUTH.ZIP. Notes From Bureaucracy South By Fred Grosby, a user on 1:109/501 Well, they're at it again. The Big Program is reorganizing, for the third time in the six years that I have worked here. It's sort of like a biennial celebration of the way things go here in Bureaucracy South. The first reorganization was in 1983, when The Big Program got a new head; let's call him Clark. Clark, being thoroughly Reaganized, was Hell-bent to cut out all of the waste, fraud, and abuse in The Big Program, increase efficiency, and save you taxpayers a ton of money. Besides, he figured that if he saved a lot of money the administration would give him a big cash award. So he reorganized, saved a lot of money, and got his big cash award. He also fragmented the operations of The Big Program so badly that nobody knew who was supposed to do what. Our regional offices screamed bloody murder, the workers in The Big Program screamed bloody murder, and our clients screamed bloody murder,but did that phase Clark? Not a chance. He knew what to do. He reorganized again, in late 1985. Ostensibly, the purpose of this reorganization was to straighten out some of the mess made by the first reorganization. What it actually did was to take several smaller offices and mash them together into one great amorphous mass that was virtually impossible to manage. It also managed to (Surprise!) save some more money, which got Clark another cash award. Now it's 1988. Clark has taken his money and moved on to head one of our regional offices, where he has taken on a new task: destroying employee morale. Clark's successor, whose name may not be mentioned here any more, got fired for reasons that have never been explained. Personally, I think it was for spending his work time managing his stock portfolio instead of The Big Program. The current head of The Big Program is a nice young fellow whom I'll call Steve. Imagine, a senior executive at age 30. All you have to do is be good friends with The Assistant Secretary and you, too, can make it in Bureaucracy South. So here's Steve, who is no great shakes as a manager, trying to run this gargantuan mess of an organization, and he's getting in trouble because he keeps sending The Administrator to the wrong people for things. Fortunately, fate brought Steve to The Big Program in late 1987, just in time for him to reorganize the place. There was a little problem, though. Steve's a political type; he doesn't really know the nuts and bolts of the program that he's FidoNews 6-16 Page 18 17 Apr 1989 managing. So, as much in self-defense as anything else, he turned the job over to his assistant, Beverly. Not only is Beverly one of my favorite people, she's also a fabulous manager. She has also worked in The Big Program forever, and knows where all the bodies are buried. So she analyzed, and discussed, and consulted, and came up with what I knew that she was going to come up with all along. Yes, folks, we're putting it back the way it was in 1983, B.C. (Before Clark). There was only one problem: explaining the cost increase to The Department, which must approve the reorganization. According to the official formula mandated by The Department, we are about to spend an additional $83,000 per year of your tax money. Actually, it's going to be more like $1.5 million, but who are we to tell The Department that their formula has a flaw in it? Either way, we figured that we were in for a fight. You know what? The Department didn't bat an eye. There are a couple of technical details to work out, but the guy at The Department who handles reorganizations has assured me that the reorganization of The Big Program will be approved. He told me that as far as The Department is concerned, it's our budget, and if we want to spend the money on our reorganization, that's our business. And Reagan doesn't think that he's presiding over a lame duck administration. If we would have tried this six years ago they would have eaten our lunch. So, in a few weeks The Big Program will be right back the way it started. Offhand, you might say that the only one who benefited from all the fuss and bother was Clark, who took the money and ran. There is, however, one other winner in this game: me. You see, I'm the one who processed the 1983 and 1985 reorganizations and is processing this one. Each reorganization takes, say, four months to process. Then there are all of the followup actions, the record keeping, and the reviews to do, by which time it's almost time to start thinking about the next reorganization. Steve is a political appointee. He will be gone by the end of the year, and what do you want to bet that his successor doesn't reorganize again? And guess who'll be there to do it? This, folks, is called job security, which is a whole lot more important to me than the few bucks that Clark got. No matter what they do to The Big Program, I win. You have to take your victories where you find them here in Bureaucracy South. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 19 17 Apr 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 3.4* Lynx 1.22 Phoenix 1.3 RBBS 17.1D Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90C* EditNL 4.00 ARC 6.01* SEAdog 4.50* MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 2.0* BinkleyTerm 2.20* Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 D'Bridge 1.18* XlatList 2.90* TPB Editor 1.21 FrontDoor 2.0 XlaxNode 2.32* TCOMMail 2.1* PRENM 1.40 XlaxDiff 2.32* TMail 8901* ParseList 1.30 UFGATE 1.03* GROUP 2.07* EMM 1.40 MSGED 1.99* XRS 1.2* * 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 6-16 Page 20 17 Apr 1989 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 28 Apr 1989 Start of Gateway '89 show at the Viscount Hotel in Queens, New York. Contact Gateway '89 at (516) 678-7180 for info. 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. Contact Hans Ligthelm of 2:500/3 for details. 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" 11 Nov 1989 A new area code forms in northern Illinois at 12:01 am. Chicago proper will remain area code 312; suburban areas formerly served with that code will become area code 708. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 21 17 Apr 1989 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Mort Sternheim 1:321/109 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Vice President-Technical Coordinator Linda Grennan 1:147/1 Secretary Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Treasurer IFNA COMMITTEE AND BOARD CHAIRS Administration and Finance Mark Grennan 1:147/1 Board of Directors Mort Sternheim 1:321/109 Bylaws Don Daniels 1:107/210 Ethics Vic Hill 1:147/4 Executive Committee Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 International Affairs Rob Gonsalves 2:500/1 Membership Services David Drexler 1:147/1 Nominations & Elections David Melnick 1:107/233 Public Affairs David Drexler 1:147/1 Publications Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Security & Individual Rights Jim Cannell 1:143/21 Technical Standards Rick Moore 1:115/333 IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732 Don Daniels 1:107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Mort Sternheim 1:321/109 12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Mark Grennan 1:147/1 13 Irene Henderson 1:107/9 (vacant) 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5 15 Scott Miller 1:128/12 Matt Whelan 3:3/1 16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Neal Curtin 1:343/1 Steve Jordan 1:206/2871 18 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 Kris Veitch 1:147/30 19 David Drexler 1:147/1 (vacant) 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-16 Page 22 17 Apr 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. 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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. -----------------------------------------------------------------