Volume 7, Number 35 27 August 1990 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | FidoNet (r) | | \ \\ | | International BBS Network | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact Fido Software. FidoNews is published weekly by the System Operators of the FidoNet (r) International BBS Network. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or authorized agents of the authors. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. 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. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are used with permission. Opinions expressed in FidoNews articles are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of Fido Software. Most articles are unsolicited. Our policy is to publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Recycling - What can YOU do? ............................. 1 Recycling ................................................ 4 Hazards in the Home ...................................... 6 Find HEIDI Situation Sheet ............................... 9 Another IFNA? ............................................ 10 TechCon-I, the Report (part 2) ........................... 12 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 17 Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 17 3. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 19 Response to Kwityer Bychin ............................... 19 And more! FidoNews 7-35 Page 1 27 Aug 1990 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Mike Robeson Fido 1:350/21.0 WHAT CAN YOU DO? "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little" Edmund Burke. Everyone agrees that the state of the Earth's environment is in sad shape and is rapidly deteriorating. Many organizations are trying to make changes enough to make a difference. With- out joining an organization there are some simple things you can do to make a difference. Reduce the amount of garbage you generate by purchasing and using products wisely. "Precycle" by purchasing products in recyclable containers, such as aluminum, steel, glass, paper and cardboard. Purchase foods in bulk or concentrate. Avoid plastic and polystyrene (styrofoam) products that are neither reusable nor easily recyclable, such as disposable diapers, lighters razors and plastic utensils. (Plastics make up 25% of our garbage by volume.) Make two-sided photocopies. Borrow items rather than buy them, for short-term or one-time use. Share magazine and newspaper subscriptions with friends. Keep a cloth towel next to the sink to be used instead of paper towels. Reduce the amount of junk mail you receive by contacting Direct Market Association, 6 E. 43rd St, New York, NY 10017, (202) 689-4977. Reuse products whenever possible. Use products that are made to be used many times, such as cloth diapers, cloth napkins, towels and rags, sponges, dishes, silver-ware, rechargeable batteries, etc. FidoNews 7-35 Page 2 27 Aug 1990 Carry a coffee mug with you to use in place of polystyrene cups. Bring your grocery and produce bags back to the supermarket and reuse them. Use the blank back sides of paper to take notes and do scratch work. Mend clothes and repair broken appliances. Take care of belongings to help them last longer. Look into purchasing used goods at second hand store and Junk yards. Recycle all materials possible. Many communities have established programs to recycle aluminum, steel, glass, newspaper and cardboard. It is also possible to recycle magazines, colored paper, wood, oil and some plastics. Support a bottle bill that establishes a deposit on beverage containers. Bottle bills that call for rewashing and reusing bottles are superior to traditional bottle bills. Help establish and promote a curbside recycling program if one does not already exist in your community. Organize a recycling program at your school, office, apartment building, church or local government office. Make a compost pile to recycle food scraps and yard trimmings. Kitchen and yard wastes make up one quarter of our waste stream. Recycle your used motor oil and car batteries at a local service station. Join grassroots organizations that have led the way in increased recycling. (list of some of the organizations are at the end of this article) Encourage the use of Recycled products: When shopping, look for the recycling symbol (three arrows forming a circle), indicating that the packaging was made from recycled materials. Use recycled paper at home and in your office. For every 23 reams of recycled paper you use in place of virgin paper, one pulp tree is saved. Encourage your local newspaper to use recycled newsprint. FidoNews 7-35 Page 3 27 Aug 1990 Encourage companies you do business with to use recycled products. For More Information Institute for Local Self-Reliance Californians against Waste 2425 18th St.,NW 909 12 St., Suite 201 Washington, D.C. 20009 Sacramento, CA 95814 (202) 232-4108 (916) 443-8317 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 4 27 Aug 1990 Mike Robeson Fido 1:350/21.0 WHY RECYCLE? Recycling saves energy, natural resources and landfill space. In 1990, it is projected that Americans will throw away over 1 million tons of aluminum cans and foil, more than 11 million tons of glass bottles and jars, over 4 and a half million tons of office paper, and nearly 10 million tons of newspaper. Almost all of this material could be recycled, cutting down on the environmental damage caused by mining, logging, and manufac- turing raw materials, while decreasing the amount of garbage being dumped. The average American generates 3.5 pounds of garbage every day for a national total of over 160 million tons per year. Over 80 percent of this waste could be recycled using existing technologies. Global warming, acid rain, and oil spills are problems directly related to our extravagant use of energy. Three percent of our nation's energy is used to produce packaging materials, such as bottles and cans. By recycling aluminum it is possible to save 95 percent of the energy that it would take to manufacture new products from raw materials. In other words, throwing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as if the can were half full of gasoline. Americans throw away about 35 million aluminum cans every year. If all these cans were recycled, we would save an amount of energy equivalent to 150 Exxon Valdez oil spills annually. In 1988, Americans set an all time high by recycling 42.5 billion cans. This alone saved enough energy to supply power for the city of Boston for one full year. For every ton of paper that is manufactured from recycled pulp, 17 trees are saved and 3 cubic yards of waste paper avoids being landfilled. Since paper comprises over 40 percent of our municipal waste stream, recycling could extend the lives of our existing dumps considerably. For recycling to work, however, it is important that there is a market for the new product. The U.S. uses about 40 percent of the world's newsprint supply, yet only 14 percent of this paper is made from recycled fiber. Recycled paper uses up to 64 percent less energy to manufacture than virgin paper and produces only one-quarter the air pollution. As you can see, there are many good reasons to recycle. The first step is to acquire more information. Consider the following Subjects: Precycle, Reuse, Recycle, and Encourage the purchase and use of products that are made with recycled material and are recyclable. The Master Recyclers, a program of the Washington State University Extension Office of Kitsap County is engaged in an effort to encourage and promote recycling. We need your help in gathering information for inclusion in our data base. Specific information we need is sources of information concerning the following subjects: Recycling manufacturers, FidoNews 7-35 Page 5 27 Aug 1990 Manufacturers of products containing recycled material, manufac- turers of packaging containing recycled material, and any sources of recycled material or information on products made from recycled material. Information may be addressed to the originator of this article, or postal mailed to: Mike Robeson, 1610 Kitsap Lake Rd. NW, Bremerton, WA 98312. Remember, If you're not recycling, you're throwing it away! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 6 27 Aug 1990 Mike Robeson 1:250/21.0 THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, For Hazardous Waste. Household drains and garbage cans usually aren't considered conduits for hazardous waste. But products as toxic as arsenic and as persistent as DDT are often poured down the kitchen sink or thrown out in the trash. This carelessness can cause serious problems. Powerful chemical products for home use include drain cleaners, disinfectants, degreasers, pesticides, paints, ect. These products also are potentially hazardous wastes. Hazardous Waste is any material discarded from the home that may, due to its chemical nature, pose a threat to human or environmental health if handled improperly. It may be ignitable, corrosive, explosive, poisonous, or have other or a combination of dangerous properties. And its difficult to control because it comes from diverse sources. Industrial waste disposal is strictly regulated. Disposal of household hazardous waste is not, even though it may contain the same toxic substances. The problem of household hazardous waste almost defys discription. The scope of the problem is gigantic. Example, Washington State citizens tossed an extimated 14,700,000 pounds of household hazardous waste into local sanitary landfills in 1987. Improper use and disposal of hazardous household products has caused poisoning, chemical burns, exposure to toxic fumes, contamination of ground water, fish kills, and explosions in sewers, garbage trucks, landfills and homes. Small amounts of hazardous chemicals are widespread throughout our homes, garages, and storage sheds - often unsafely stored. The solution starts at home. Each person can help control household toxics. Purchasing power can be used to give industry the incentive to produce safer household products. Local governments can help provide hazardous waste management plans and provide public education. State government has grant and technical assistance programs for household hazardous waste projects and planning. HOW TO IDENTIFY A HAZARDOUS PRODUCT FidoNews 7-35 Page 7 27 Aug 1990 Federal law requires that hazardous products be labled: "DANGER" or "CAUTION". Each word indicates the degree of a product's toxicity, "DANGER" being the most toxic, "CAUTION" being the least. Toxicity is capacity of a substance to cause damage to an organism. Other words on a lable like poison, corrosive, flammable, volatice, or caustic, help to determine the principal hazard of the product. Lables rarely warn of long-term health hazards, and labeling requirements do not apply to most hobby products. Inadequate as they are, lables do contain helpful information for many hazardous products. Knowing the meaning of signal words can help users make informed product and disposal choices. COMMON EXAMPLES OF HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTES: Paints and Solvents; Oil-based paints, paint thinners, paint strippers, boat bottom paints, varnishes, furnisher refinishers, metal polishes. Auto Care Products; Engine cleaner, used motor oil, tar remover, antifreeze, gasoline. Cleaners; Bleach, degreasers, spot removers, rug cleaners, disinfectants, toilet cleaners, oven cleaners, drain cleaners, septic tank cleaners. Pesticides; Pest stips, insect repellant, flea powder, ant and roach powder, rat poison, slug bait, moth balls, weed killers, wood preservatives. Miscellaneous Items; Dyes, lighter fluids, pool chemicals, photo chemicals, chemistry sets, old fire extinguishers, old medicines. SAFETY TIPS FOR HAZARDOUS PRODUCTS 1. Read product labels, follow directions and warnings. 2. Keep unused material in the original containers, lables intact, securely stored. 3. Do not overuse products. Twice as much won't work twice as well. 4. Never mix Products - dangerous reactions could occur. 5. Never mix wastes - it could create a difficult disposal problem. 6. Don't use old hazardous products: they may contain dangerous chemicals that have been banned. 7. Wear protective equipment such as goggles, cloves, or respirators with proper cartridges when using hazardous material. Conuslt your telephone directory under "safety equipment" for stores that carry safety gear. 8. Avoid breathing mists or vapors. If possible, work out- FidoNews 7-35 Page 8 27 Aug 1990 doors, if you must work indors, use plenty of ventilation. 9. If pregnant? avoid exposure to all toxic chemicals. Many household products are untested for their effects on the unborn. For further information on the subject of Hazardous waste or any other environmental subjects contact your county health department, local University Extension Agent, your state's Department of Ecology or your library system. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 9 27 Aug 1990 FIND HEIDI SITUATION SHEET August 16, 1990 On August 4, 1990, 11-year old Heidi Seeman was abducted not far from her home in northeast San Antonio. Volunteers from Randolph Air Force Base, where Heidi's father is stationed, helped community volunteers organize a search which, by week's end involved more than 6,000 San Antonio civilian and military residents. Searches were conducted on foot, horseback, and in off-road vehicles. Additionally, a thorough search was conducted by air using helicopters, ultra light and private aircraft. Searchers also used dog teams when following up on specific leads. The Mayor of San Antonio proclaimed Saturday August 11, 1990 as "Find Heidi Day" and asked everyone to spend at least one hour searching areas around their neighborhoods. Officials believe that as many as 300,000 residents joined in the search. Sunday, San Antonio observed a day to "Take Heidi to Church" in their hearts and their prayers. Despite the diligent efforts of the volunteers to find Heidi, no trace of her has been found. Yet volunteers continue to come forward to help search, distribute flyers, and transmit computer images to other locations. The massive search for Heidi stems from an overwhelming concern by San Antonio people for the safety of their own children. They are saying that all children are at risk unless we do something to prevent such crimes. The search has now expanded nationwide, with a reward in excess of $50,000. This weekend, Heidi's disappearance will be covered on the Fox network program, "America's Most Wanted". We ask for your help to copy and distribute material in an attempt to find her. Won't you help? Heidi is 11 years old, 4' 10" tall and weighs 70 pounds. She has light brown hair and green eyes. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing a white, collarless shirt, purple shorts, black and white polka dot tennis shoes, and white socks. [Photo enclosed in FN073501.GIF] Notify your local FBI, or call 512-651-LOOK. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 10 27 Aug 1990 Another IFNA?? -------------- By Kwityer Bychin Hey, I'm back. Being that I ran off at the mouth a little about IFNA last week, I decided that I'd take that subject a little further and address the concerns of those PEOPLE that think we need an IFNA replacement. Since IFNA bought the farm, there've been quite a few twisted people moaning and whining about starting up a *NEW* Politburo to run Fidonet. Hey guess what sister? We don't NEED a new IFNA. We've been doing just FINE without an IFNA for almost two years now, because when it WAS around, it didn't do SQUAT. Look at good 'ol Fight-O-Net this way... You got a mailer that can send stuff to other mailers. You got a list of a WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE that you can send your stuff to. So SEND your stuff and KWITYER BYCHIN. You don't need no "organization" to run your system for you. You know the rules, you got the policy document, now PLAY THE GAME or GET LOST. Even though the network will do just FINE without any kinda politburo, SOMEBODY is gonna try to whip one up and take over the network. AGAIN. Yep, BANK ON IT. Some group of bureaucratic control freaks will undoubtedly make a pitch to conquer Fidonet sooner or later. And maybe they'll even do a NETWORK WIDE REFERENDUM! Yeah! They'll put out a question like "We are taking over Fidonet. Vote NO if you don't want that to happen". And the same 30% of the network will vote like they did last time, and WHAM! Instant takeover. Pretty neat huh??! Try this at home. Or maybe we'll see some Presnellian democratic takeover of Fidonet! Hey, that would be fun! Adjustable Democracy! Or maybe The Freddies will take over, and require you to be a certified senior citizen in order to send a netmail. YEAH! The FREDDIES! The FREDDIES will all gang up on Vince Perrier and Lighthorse Harry Lee and tie them to the RACK for LHarc'ing the SNOOZE (the most heinous crime since the Holocaust). Let's hear it for the FREDDIES folks, , come on! A big hand! . Oh yeah. By special request, I've been asked to plug a new network. Here's the intro from the ApiNet nodelist: ;A Have you ever been in a network and got tired of all the flames? FidoNews 7-35 Page 11 27 Aug 1990 ;A Have you ever been in a network and got tired of all the bullcrap? ;A Have you ever been in a network and hear people say to others ;A "HEY, IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT HERE THEN GO JOIN ANOTHER !UCKING NET"? ;A Or better yet, have you ever been kicked out of a network? ;A Well folks, It looks like you're in luck because right here, ;A right now, right in front of your p**cking face is (drum roll please) ;A ;A "ANOTHER P**CKYN NETWORK"! ;A (Sheesh... Just what we p**ckyn need) I censored the thing with the asterisks just in case we have some crybabies out there that can't take it. I've been told, that since this network took on some Canadian members, they renamed it to Another P**ckin' International Network. You send a netmail to ROB ECKERT for more info. Well that's it for this week. Next week, we'll find some(thing)one else to beat on. And look for the Nitwit of the Week award, coming soon! KB ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 12 27 Aug 1990 Jan Ceuleers 2:295/53@fidonet 27:1332/853@signet TechCon-I, The Report (part 2) This is the second and last part of the TechCon-I report. The first part appeared in FidoNews 734. First, an apology. I noticed in the logfile of 2:295/27 that someone had tried to request some of the technical documents that were distributed at TechCon. He only got one, because of a ridiculously low MaxReq setting (the person in question was a point). This limit has since been increased to 5, with a maximum of 250Kbytes for unlisted nodes and 550Kbytes for listed-ones. That should do it. IFF (Interchange File Format) -- Maximilian Hantsch --------------------------------------------------- Maximilian Hantsch (2:310/6) told us that Electronic Arts, a US based software company, had come up with a file format which was sufficiently general for it to be used to store data of any kind. The initial purpose was to allow different programs, running on the same platform (i.e. the Commodore Amiga) to interchange data consistently. It could, however, be used to interchange data between different platforms as well, and that is one of the reasons IFF was on the agenda at TechCon. Max briefly talked about the efforts in NET_DEV to come to a "Type-III Packet". One of the possibilities is the RFC822 document, which actually looks a lot like the kludges we currently use in FidoNet Type-II Packets, except that there's no fixed binary header. RFC822 is being widely used in professional, as well as in amateur networks. Another notable proposition for a future format is the 'binary chunks' proposal. Max likes this proposal a lot, and this is no coincidence, because its structure is very similar to IFF. Both structures consist of chunks, which have a 4- byte ASCII identifier, a length field, and the specified number of data bytes. The length field is only one byte in length in the binary chunks proposal, while it is a 32-bit unsigned integer in IFF. A second-level definition of IFF (the above structure definition being the first level) would be that chunks can contain 1 or more chunks themselves. Another step up the hierarchical ladder, we find that a number of predefined forms (specific configurations of nested chunks) can be used as building blocks in IFF files as well. FidoNews 7-35 Page 13 27 Aug 1990 Since IFF was initially designed specifically to be used on the Commodore Amiga, all 16- and 32-bit numbers need to be stored in the Motorola-order. They need to be stored at word- boundaries as well, which means that pad bytes need to be inserted if a chunk has an odd length. We need to make sure that the chunk types (the 4-char identifiers) are allocated centrally, so that no two programmers use the same identifier for an entirely different chunk type. Commodore-Amiga has set up an approval body, which is part of CATS (Commodore-Amiga Technical Support), with which chunk type identifiers can be registered. (Why not use different smileys for identifiers in FidoNet?, JC). Max went on to discuss a number of IFF-standard chunk types (FORM, LIST, CAT and PROP) which provide for the orderly arrangement of data, as well as providing a means to define the scope for common properties. He explained how to parse these standard chunk types as well. A remark was made that it might be better to stop talking about a type-III PACKET, and instead call it a new type of BUNDLE. Otherwise, people might think that we're trying to change the basic FidoNet protocol. This is entirely unnecessary, since we would still transmit a type-II packet during FTS-0001 sessions, which can be followed by any kind of file. Actually, this is the way in which echomail is currently being moved, albeit that the archives contain type- II packets... Finally, this standard uses other standards. The FTXT FORM type makes use of the same ISO character set as does Microsoft Windows, for example. The standard was placed in the public domain, and example code has been placed in the public domain as well. It is available from 2:295/27 as IFF_88.ZOO (515K). Max may have it up for file request as well, but I'm not sure. Many attendants took this file home with them as well, so you may find it near you. Message FOSSILs - Panel discussion with Henk, Bob, Vince, Alexander and Max --------------------------------------------------------- What this is really all about is a database interface layer. We want to define a high-level interface, while the implementation is platform dependent. Vince remarks that Wynn Wagner has been studying a way of handling messages that was similar to IFF (a binary-style message structure); Alexander feels that IFF would not be a proper way of storing messages on disk. FidoNews 7-35 Page 14 27 Aug 1990 Another issue is platform independence. Henk mentions the fact that Novell's B-Trieve is available on lots of platforms, but this doesn't allow for compatibility with existing message base formats. Existing programs that make use of specific message base formats, without accessing the message base through the message FOSSIL, are a problem: integrity cannot be maintained in a multitasking situation where one of the tasks accesses the message base without making use of the message FOSSIL. Bob feels that whatever we do, we mustn't slow things down, however nice the features we add may be. One part of the panel feels that too many people have been involved in the NET_DEV-version of this discussion for anything to really happen, while the others think that this is too big a project for a single person. A limited number of developers should sit together and "just do it". The key people would probably be the major BBS authors, as they could lead the way in this. Lots of utility developers would soon follow. Maximilian Hantsch (2:310/6) has volunteered to coordinate the efforts. If anyone has already written message FOSSIL specs, or is even busy writing code that uses a message FOSSIL, you are requested to contact Max and to share ideas with him. Please take into account that Max's system is not CM. A brain storming on what the actual interface should look like yields the following: perhaps we should use a SQL subset, in order to support multi tasking, programs should be written to take error messages into account (cannot perform this or that function because this or that resource is locked,...). Henk briefly sums up what type of functions a message FOSSIL should incorporate: initialize message base, initialize area, open+close area, open+close message, read+write message, (we'd probably need to be able to access the header and the body separately). The-Box -- Arjen Lentz ---------------------- Arjen talked about his mailer, which is available both for the PC and for the Atari ST. Sadly, Arjen's talk was not recorded on tape and I wouldn't dare publish something on it from memory. I have informed him of the problem, and he will no doubt publish an article when his mailer's documentation becomes available. FidoNews 7-35 Page 15 27 Aug 1990 Global Configuration File -- Maximilian Hantsch ----------------------------------------------- Programs requiring configuration can either extract this information from other programs' configuration files, or have the user construct configuration files of their own. In the latter case, a lot of information is bound to be duplicated, thereby increasing the chance of introducing inconsistencies by forgetting to change all the occurrences of a particular piece of information in all the configuration files. This could be solved by introducing a format for a global configuration file, i.e. a configuration file which contains configuration information for use by more than one program (preferably all). Max based his talk on a document written by Martin Laubach, who based the format he proposes on the Microsoft Windows configuration file (WIN.INI), with the addition of a global section. Here's the format: global_config_verb_1 options_1 global_config_verb_2 options_2 ... [program_name_1] config_verb_local_to_program_1 local_options_1 config_verb_local_to_program_2 local_options_2 ... [program_name_2] ... If a particular config verb is specified both in a local and in the global section, the local options will take precedence over the global options for the program the local config verb is local to. In other words: global specifications are valid for all programs, unless they are overridden in local sections. A file containing Martin Laubach's document is available from 2:295/27 as NEWCFG.LZH (2860 bytes). Character Sets -- Maximilian Hantsch ------------------------------------ Maximilian described a number of 8-bit character sets. A kludge line specifying which character set a message was written in does not solve the problem where people's names (in the From and To fields of the header) contain non-ASCII characters. FidoNews 7-35 Page 16 27 Aug 1990 Part of the audience (myself included, JC) feels that a change of character sets requires sweeping enough changes to software for the changes to be done thoroughly the first time around. Why stick to 8 bits if people like the Chinese have been asking us (in the Meadow conference for example) for a way to support their multibyte characters. An argument against this is the fact that many of the languages requiring multibyte characters aren't written left- to-right, and one line under the other. It would therefore be difficult to write software that is sufficiently general to handle all of this. That's about it. As you all can see, we've had fun. The discussions were very informative (we've all learned a lot) and were completely free of the kind of bitching that continuously goes on in NET_DEV. BTW: I hope that's not one of the reasons why the previous moderator of NET_DEV has become the *previous* moderator of NET_DEV. Another point. What you've read in this report only reflects (or tries to reflect) what happened at TechCon during the more or less planned sessions. There have been 'fringe meetings' in several of Antwerp's world famous "staminees" (from the French word 'estaminet'). As a matter of fact, Henk Wevers turned up a bottle of Bink beer during one of those fringe meetings, which he presented (empty, of course) to Bob and Vince the following morning. A local sysop, Erik De Schrijver, found out about the brewery, and arranged a guided tour for them. You should have seen their proud faces when they came back home that evening, each carrying 24 bottles of a beer named after their brain child. Touching... Jan Ceuleers TechCon-I coordinator ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 17 27 Aug 1990 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Henry Clark 124/6120 I Told You Homeboy -- U Can't Touch This. Missed me ? I thought not. I've been on the campaign trail, running for RC in our Region 19 elections. Campaigning is probably not the right word, more like passive participation. Our current RC decided to hold an REC election at the same time, which has caused flames like a Kuwaiti well blowout. We also get to try and vote on a Regional Policy, one of which would make these elections a permanent arrangement. Watch your nodelist for the results, maybe. Is there a Disk Doctor in the House ? -- Norton Utilities 5.0 was there, so I bought it. I owed them one, now I don't. I remember back in Summer of '87, I had been running DOS 3.2 and switched to Compaq DOS 3.31. BIG PARTITIONS. I was so happy. But then, disaster. I am always sorting my directories, and I had always used Norton's DS, circa version 3 or something like that. Anyway, I actually was forced back to multiple 32 meg partitions on that disk until Norton 4 arrived. Late '87, I think, and of course, it supported the BIGDOS partition, and DS worked and I was a happy camper. Damn the sector size, full speed ahead. Can't touch this. As a side note on DS, I seem to want mostly DATE order, so that the end of a DIR shows me the latest files. I PATCH the dates on the directory entries themselves so that a full disk date sort puts the directories in least to most used order ! On the BBS file directories, I use ALPHA order, except the new uploads area, which is DATE order. This matches the order of my FILES LISTs, and seems to be faster for BBS user display. So anyway, I dutifully archived Norton 4.5 and loaded up 5.0. What a DISASTER. The interactive apps are OK, a little gaudy with all the latest pretty menu, mousey type, pull downs, etc. I think it looks alot like what PCTOOLS advertises ( I never bought it for that reason. ) BUT the batchable commands are a horror(sp). The docs say that DS is replaced with SpeedDisk, but I couldn't find it. Then I noticed the docs telling me to keep DS, and quite a few other 4.5 commands around. Interesting, in a sardonic kind of way. FidoNews 7-35 Page 18 27 Aug 1990 I don't know what to say, something like : Buy Norton 4.5 before your retailer runs out ? This is like the New Coke/Classic Coke thing, hopefully Symantec will lose their butt and return to the UNIX style utilities we have known and loved. Oh woe, oh woe, o we o, we-o-oh... Stop, Honeytime -- After three long weeks of one meal a day, and far too much work, Darling returned with The Kid. She's decided to get into drugs ! Fertility drugs, that is. I keep hearing something about twins... The Kid took some lessons from sister-in-law, he now knows : alt-X, cd \games, comic, ctrl-alt-del I can't believe I have to buy another computer for a 4 year old. The airlines wrecked his bicycle, so he got a new one of those. He's a happy boy. Miscellaneous Ramblings -- Get well soon, David. Quick to jump on the FIDO-GUI bandwagon, I have enclosed a wee graphic to help cheer up a fellow sysop. Later Dude, Oh... U Can't Touch This. [Photo enclosed in file FN073502.GIF] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 19 27 Aug 1990 ================================================================= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ================================================================= Bob Morris 1:141/333 Dear Editor; I have just gotten up off the floor after reading the column by Kwityer. Must admit that I haven't had this much fun since drinking Anchor Steam Beer in the WOC in in Sin-City. I honestly don't know where people come from to create batch files that "break" when someone changes the extension. I have the old batch files from 16/0 (circa pre-Harry Lee and pre-Pete White having just returned from a couple of years doing testing on OSIRIUS and ISIS) and darned if the batch files (created in 1987 don't say "If exist fnews*.* copy fnews*.* e:\fido\fidonews". I guess my point here is that if you hard code something that may change, you are definitely going to "Break" it when you are not around to change it, but "Big Deal" this is a "HOBBY" and we are not running Computer Centers for large corporations out of our homes (at least I hope not). To Vince and Harry, it was time that someone took the bull (no pun intended) by the horns and made a decision. IFNA, the democratic entity, is dead, we have come full circle again and are once again a "Dictatorship" (if you don't understand that one you have not been around long enough). The gar... er stuff that has appeared in EchoMail and in this publication is pure hogwash! Lharc is a Public Domain Package, it has source code available, if some of the people who have complained the loudest would have spent 50% of the time they did complaining in converting LHARC to their individual machine requirements we all would have had five or six more versions of the product converted by now. To those who want to know, I know the "REAL" identity of Kwityer, and for some heavy duty bucks will fill you in, after all I have to split it with Kwityer . Bob Morris 1:141/333 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 7-35 Page 20 27 Aug 1990 ================================================================= LATEST VERSIONS ================================================================= Latest Software Versions MS-DOS Systems -------------- Bulletin Board Software Name Version Name Version Name Version DMG 2.93 Phoenix 1.3 TAG 2.5f* Fido 12s+ QuickBBS 2.64 TBBS 2.1 Lynx 1.30 RBBS 17.3A TComm/TCommNet 3.4 Kitten 2.16 RBBSmail 17.3A Telegard 2.5 Maximus 1.00 RemoteAccess 0.04a* TPBoard 6.1 Opus 1.13+* SLBBS 1.77* Wildcat! 2.15 PCBoard 14.2 Socrates 1.00 XBBS 1.13 Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version BinkleyTerm 2.40* EditNL 4.00 ARC 7.0* D'Bridge 1.30 MakeNL 2.20 ARCAsim 2.30 Dutchie 2.90C ParseList 1.30 ARCmail 2.07 FrontDoor 1.99c* Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 PRENM 1.47 SysNL 3.11 Crossnet v1.5 SEAdog 4.51b XlatList 2.90 EMM 2.02 TIMS 1.0(Mod8)* XlaxDiff 2.35* Gmail 2.05 XlaxNode 2.35* GROUP 2.16 GUS 1.30 InterPCB 1.30* LHARC 1.13 MSG 4.1 MSGED 2.00* PK[UN]ZIP 1.10 QM 1.0 QSORT 4.03 Sirius 1.0w SLMAIL 1.35 StarLink 1.01 TagMail 2.20 TCOMMail 2.2 Telemail 1.20 TMail 1.15 TPBNetEd 3.2 TosScan 1.00 UFGATE 1.03 XRS 3.40 ZmailQ 1.12* FidoNews 7-35 Page 21 27 Aug 1990 Macintosh --------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Red Ryder Host v2.1b10 Tabby 2.2 MacArc 0.04 Mansion 7.15 Copernicus 1.0d* ArcMac 1.3 WWIV (Mac) 3.0 StuffIt 1.6b1* FBBS 0.91* TImport 1.331 Hermes 0.88* TExport 1.32 Timestamp 1.6 Tset 1.3 Import 3.2 Export 3.21 Sundial 3.2 PreStamp 3.2 OriginatorII 2.0 AreaFix 1.6 Mantissa 3.21 Zenith 1.5 UNZIP 1.02b Amiga ----- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Paragon 2.06+ BinkleyTerm 1.00 AmigArc 0.23 TrapDoor 1.50* AReceipt 1.5* WelMat 0.35 booz 1.01 ConfMail 1.10 ChameleonEdit 0.10 ElectricHerald1.66* Lharc 1.10 MessageFilter 1.52* oMMM 1.49b ParseLst 1.30 PkAX 1.00 PK[UN]ZIP 1.01 PolyxAmy 2.02* RMB 1.30 TrapList 1.12* UNzip 0.86 Yuck! 1.61* Zoo 2.00 Atari ST FidoNews 7-35 Page 22 27 Aug 1990 -------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailer Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version FIDOdoor/ST 1.5c* BinkleyTerm 1.03g3 ConfMail 1.00 Pandora BBS 2.41c The BOX 1.20 ParseList 1.30 QuickBBS/ST 0.40 ARC 6.02* GS Point 0.61 LHARC 0.51 LED ST 0.10* BYE 0.25* PKUNZIP 1.10 MSGED 1.96S SRENUM 6.2 Trenum 0.10 OMMM 1.40 Archimedes ---------- BBS Software Mailers Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version ARCbbs 1.44* BinkleyTerm 2.03* Unzip 2.1TH ARC 1.03 !Spark 2.00d* ParseLst 1.30 BatchPacker 1.00* + Netmail capable (does not require additional mailer software) * 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 7-35 Page 23 27 Aug 1990 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 1 Sep 1990 George Peace announces the winner of the "Best Looking FidoNet SysOp" award. Send netmail to 1:13/13 to cast your ballot. 5 Oct 1990 21st Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" 6 Nov 1990 First anniversary of Van Diepen Automatiseert, 2:500/28 14 Nov 1990 Marco Maccaferri's 21rd Birthday. Send greetings to him at 2:332/16.0 1 Jan 1991 Implementation of 7% Goods and Services Tax in Canada. Contact Joe Lindstrom at 1:134/55 for a more colorful description. 16 Feb 1991 Fifth anniversary of the introduction of Echomail, by Jeff Rush. 7 Oct 1991 Area code 415 fragments. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties will begin using area code 510. This includes Oakland, Concord, Berkeley and Hayward. San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, parts of Santa Clara County, and the San Francisco Bay Islands will retain area code 415. 1 Feb 1992 Area code 213 fragments. Western, coastal, southern and eastern portions of Los Angeles County will begin using area code 310. This includes Los Angeles International Airport, West Los Angeles, San Pedro and Whittier. Downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities (such as Hollywood and Montebello) will retain area code 213. 1 Dec 1993 Tenth anniversary of Fido Version 1 release. 5 Jun 1997 David Dodell's 40th Birthday If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. FidoNews 7-35 Page 24 27 Aug 1990 -----------------------------------------------------------------