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Volume 4, Number 45 7 December 1987
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
Contributing Editors: Dale Lovell, 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.
Copyright 1987 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.
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. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
Standards? What Standards? .............................. 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
A Letter To Mayor Koch ................................... 2
MEGADEX - A New Way to Look at the MEGALIST .............. 7
3. NOTICES .................................................. 8
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 8
New IFNA Address for Orders and Memberships .............. 8
Latest Software Versions ................................. 8
FidoNews 4-45 Page 1 7 Dec 1987
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
Standards? What Standards?
I'm going to break one of my standing rules here. I'm going to
talk from the perspective of a software publisher. Well, to
roughly quote Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "Life itself is no more
than a mass of exceptions."
A year ago there was this thing called the "FidoNet Protocol".
It was even documented. The idea was to promulgate a public
domain standard for electronic mail. The basic idea was sound, I
think. It got a lot of good attention from a lot of people for
awhile. I've spoken with people who were planning on
implementing it for Telex, Compuserve, BIX, MCI Mail, and a lot
of other services. Not to mention, of course, the "real" target
of people writing mailers for Ataris, Commodore 64s, and so
forth. It was a concrete spec with a fairly wide acceptance, and
it made a good, solid target to work at.
Oh, it wasn't perfect. We all knew that. Since when is anything
ever perfect? But people were working on ways to beef it up and
make it cleaner. One such way was extended addressing, as that
allowed for open-ended addressing in ways that could not be
anticipated in advance, so we could add anything we might need
later on without having to rewrite all of the existing software.
Another was the SEAlink protocol, so we could maintain backwards
compatibility while allowing for much faster data transfer on par
with the best protocols known. [Forestalling an argument: I
didn't say "faster than", I said "on par with". Remember that
the main design criteria of SEAlink was high speed while keeping
full compatibility with XMODEM and Modem7. If you like, we can
argue over the exact numbers another day.]
Something odd happened, though. The whole thing got tossed out
the window. Oh, the FidoNet Protocol is still there, but it's
now just one possible protocol. Systems linking up these days
must negotiate over what protocol they will use. Why? A few
percent difference in performance once in awhile? Or just to be
new and different?
No matter. What's done is done. But I can't help but feel that
something important was lost in the shuffle.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-45 Page 2 7 Dec 1987
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Edward I. Koch
Mayor City Of New York
City Hall
New York, New York
Re: 179th Street And Hillside Avenue
Dear Mayor Koch,
Several months have gone by, and the situation at 179th
Street and Hillside Avenue has not changed to any great extent!
It certainly has not gotten any better!!!
To refresh your memory, I wrote to you detailing the fact
that I had been verbally abused several times when coming up out
of the subway, by the "GYPSY" cab drivers.
Since my last letter I have spent over 100 hours observing
the situation to see what I could find out. I am not nor have I
ever been a gypsy cab driver (just in case you are interested). I
am an angry City resident!
The only change that has taken place is an increased
presence in the a.m. hours (6:30 - 8:00) of inspectors from the
T.L.C., who seem to be more interested in drinking coffee than
correcting the situation they are paid to correct.
But that is not when they are needed! They are needed from
4:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the corner of 179th Street and Hillside
Avenue, which is where the "GYPSY" cabs block traffic, illegally
park, and pick up their passengers.
An increased police presence is needed on the same corner,
but after the incident last night, I fear even the police cannot
or will not handle the situation.
Last night a patrol car passed by and stopped to give a
gypsy cab several (3) tickets. As soon as the police left, the
driver got out of his cab, went over the other drivers who hang
around on the sidewalk, said, "F**k those cops", and ripped up
the tickets and threw them on the sidewalk.
About 15 minutes later, after the driver returned from
taking 5 people in his car (at $1 per person), he was loading up
again when the same police car passed by.
To the officers credit, they stopped and issued him at least
FidoNews 4-45 Page 3 7 Dec 1987
seven tickets after inspecting his car.
They did not however make him unload the passengers from his
car, and when they left after giving him the tickets, he ripped
them right up, and threw them in the road!
What type of police force are you running? If I ripped up
tickets, I would be held accountable. Why are gypsy cab drivers
immune from the law?
Several weeks ago, the gypsy cabs had the corner of 179th
and Hillside so blocked, that an ambulance had to ride on the
SIDEWALK for one entire block of Hillside Avenue to get close
enough to a building to go inside to help the person who was
sick!
The parking lot of Burger King, who hires youth from the
area, is another problem. When the gypsy cabs hear the police
coming (they always blow their sirens to allow them time to get
away) most of them pull into the Burger King lot and solicit
passengers from the lot, where they know the police will not
touch them. Needless to say, this makes the parking lot
impossible to access for a paying customer.
We are not talking about just a few gypsy cabs here. We are
talking about an organized business, led by "Dudley", of 35 to 45
cabs soliciting people on a regular basis. It takes about 10
minutes from the time a gypsy cab leaves until he returns. Each
cab carries a minimum of 5 people (they won't go unless the car
is full) with some carrying 11 people in a van. During the busy
time period (4 p.m. to 8 p.m.) this comes out to an average of 30
passengers per cab/per hour.
Throughout those 4 hours over 4800 people are transported by
gypsy cabs, 5 days a week. When the cabs are stopped because of
police presence, these people are forced to take the City bus
instead. It translates out to a loss to the City of over
$24,000.00 per 5 day business week, or over $1,228,000 per year
in lost revenue to the Transit Authority and the City of New
York!
Of course these figures do not reflect the additional loss
incurred when these cabs operate in the a.m. hours as well as the
p.m. hours.
Additional revenue to the City is lost in other ways as
well. Let us assume that 50% of these cab drivers pay City taxes
on their cash income (and that is a very, very large assumption),
then 50% of them do not pay taxes!
These figures are for only one of hundreds of areas in the
City (major subway stations) where this occurs on a daily basis.
If this situations exists at even 10 of the major subway stops
throughout New York City, the loss in revenue to the City becomes
astronomical!
FidoNews 4-45 Page 4 7 Dec 1987
"Dudley" (he calls himself "Dudley", which may or may not be
his real name) who you might remember I mentioned in my last
letter is still in business. Dudley apparently works for the
Transit Authority, (as he has been seen inside token booths) and
purchases the tokens from the other gypsy cab drivers at a
discounted price.
What he does with the tokens is a mystery, although informed
sources say he allegedly sells them to people who come to the
token booth. If true, then this is another instance where the
City is loosing revenue. The tokens are sometimes given to the
gypsy cab drivers to pay for the fare instead of cash, which is
why they need an inside man to redeem them for them.
I asked around one day, why no one seems to care when they
get tickets. The answer was a good one, and I thought I would
pass it on to you, Mayor Koch. I was told, "If we get a bunch of
tickets in one day, we go to motor vehicles the next day, and
claim a license plate was either lost or stolen".
They receive the new plates long before the tickets are due
in court, and in most cases are never called to account for the
tickets. Of course, they told me, "We can't do that to often, but
once in a while we get away with it".
People are yelled at when they come out of the subway
entrance, and more than once, fights have started over who gets
what passenger. Crude and vulgar remarks are made to women by the
gypsy cab drivers as the women come out of the subway.
Not too long ago, the police gave out a bunch of tickets and
left. They were back within minutes, and they were back in force!
It seems someone ("DUDLEY") allegedly got on his CB radio and
called in a 10-13 on channel 9, the CB emergency channel.
Not bad enough he did that, it was reported that "shots had
been fired and an officer was down"! Now I don't blame the
police for responding the way they did. However I feel sorry for
anyone who got in their way, as they were going to help an
officer in trouble.
Several false alarms have been sent in from that area as
well.
Cannot say for sure who did it, but if you would come and
watch what goes on here on 179th Street and Hillside, you would
get an understanding of who did it.
After spending this additional time observing this area, I
submit the following suggestions for your immediate
consideration.
1) Station 2 police officers in a patrol car on the corner
of 179th Street and Hillside Avenue. Park this car on
179th Street from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday thru Friday,
for a period of 30 days, with explicit instructions to
FidoNews 4-45 Page 5 7 Dec 1987
ticket each and every gypsy cab.
2) Station 1 police officer in the Burger King parking lot
(with Burger King's cooperation) to prevent the gypsy
cabs from picking up inside the parking lot.
3) Station 2 TLC Inspectors on the corner of 179th Street
and Hillside Avenue, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday thru
Friday, for a period of 30 days with instructions to
ticket each and every gypsy cab they see for each
infraction of the law they find.
4) Station 1 TLC Inspector in the Burger King parking lot
(with Burger King's cooperation) to prevent the gypsy
cabs from picking up inside the parking lot.
5) Station a Traffic Department tow truck on the scene to
remove cars found to be operating without the proper
insurance, inspection and registration documents.
6) Provide legislation that would make the illegal sale
and/or purchasing of tokens a crime.
The first 4 items might seem like overkill to you Mr.
Mayor, but I can assure you they are not! A favorite trick of
these gypsy cab driver is to get out of his car, as soon as he is
parked. This allows for two things to occur.
A) He can get closer to people coming out of the subway.
B) When the police do come, there is no driver in the car.
If you remember my last letter, you might remember the fact
that I told you I would give you a chance to remedy the
situation, and crush the rumors that, "The Mayor is afraid of
these people and won't do anything to resolve the problem"!
Well you had ample time and nothing has been done by your
office about it.
Now we will see what the people have to say!
Copies of this letter are going to all major newspapers,
radio and television stations, and corporate taxi fleet
owners. The taxi owners can use it in their next rate
decision hearings.
New York City was once a fine place to live in. It is a
shame we have a Mayor who seems to be afraid of a little bad
publicity, to save the City millions of dollars annually.
FidoNews 4-45 Page 6 7 Dec 1987
Sincerely yours,
A Concerned Citizen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-45 Page 7 7 Dec 1987
MEGADEX
A New Way to Look at the MEGALIST
Version 1.4 - Released For Use By All Sysops
This program is designed to reduce the disk space required to
view and search the national software megalist produced weekly
from 135/68.
Megadex has reduced the file size to less than ONE THIRD the size
of the weekly Megalist.
This week the update files are 90k v.s. 220k for the megalist.
To operate just un-arc the archive into any directory you have
handy.
Then just type MEGADEX and hit your return key to begin.
Weekly updates can be SEAdog requested from 107/246 and 135/68.
If you do not have the MEGADEX.EXE file then request MEGADEXC
from 107/246.
After you have MEGADEX.EXE then the file name to request is
"MEGADEX" (without quotes) and WILL NOT contain the .EXE file. It
will contain only the weekly update files. (From 107/246)
Revision History
----------------
1.0 Initial Release
1.1 Tightened Search Loops With An Increase In Speed
Problem Corrected In Small Node Number Search
1.4 Increased Speed By 23% When Searching
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-45 Page 8 7 Dec 1987
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
9 Jan 1988
The next net 104 FidoNet Sysop Meeting. Contact Oscar Barlow
at 104/0 for information.
25 Aug 1988
(pending BoD approval) Start of the Fifth International
FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Drawbridge Inn in
Cincinnatti, OH. Contact Tim Sullivan at 108/62 for more
information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and
is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with
all this time. We're hoping to see you there!
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Kaplan, 1:1/10
Effective with this FidoNews issue all IFNA monetary transactions
will be handled by our Treasure, Leonard Mednick (1:1/11). Len
will deposit money and verify memberships for all IFNA Orders.
The actual processing of memberships and filing of PO's will
continue to be done by other individuals after the treasure's
duties are completed. The administrative and legal address will
remain the same in St. Louis. The forms at the back of this
FidoNews refect this change.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Software Versions
BBS Systems Node List Other
& Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
Dutchie 2.71* EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21
Fido 12d* MakeNL 1.10 ARCmail 1.1*
Opus 1.03a Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.2*
SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.84 EchoMail 1.31
TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1*
* 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
FidoNews 4-45 Page 9 7 Dec 1987
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-45 Page 10 7 Dec 1987
__
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
c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA
700 Bishop Street, #1014
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-4112
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 first elected Board of Directors
was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
input to this Conference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 4-45 Page 11 7 Dec 1987
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
ORDER FORM
Publications
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing
them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee
Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each
publication, but we can make no written guarantees.
Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986
IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____
IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____
IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____
SUBTOTAL _____
IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers
System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____
SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member
Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____
Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member
International orders include $10.00 for
surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____
SUBTOTAL _____
HI. Residents add 4.0 % Sales tax _____
TOTAL _____
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS:
International FidoNet Association
c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA
700 Bishop Street, #1014
Honolulu, HI. 96813-4112
USA
Name________________________________
Zone:Net/Node____:____/____
Company_____________________________
Address_____________________________
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
Voice Phone_________________________
Signature___________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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