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F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 29 (20 July 1992)
The newsletter of the |
FidoNet BBS community | Published by:
_ |
/ \ | "FidoNews" BBS
/|oo \ | (415)-863-2739
(_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1
_`@/_ \ _ | Internet:
| | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
| (*) | \ )) |
|__U__| / \// | Editors:
_//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings
(_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar
(jm) |
|
| Newspapers should have no friends.
| -- JOSEPH PULITZER
----------------------------+---------------------------------------
Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews.
Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free!
Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00US
For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ..................................................... 1
Editorial: Home, home of the deranged ......................... 1
2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 3
Fidonet and Russia: A New Need ................................ 3
User-defined Origin lines for Remote Access ................... 4
UPLink - Are you a believer? .................................. 5
No proper title!!! ............................................ 7
3. LATEST VERSIONS ............................................... 8
Software Versions List ........................................ 8
4. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 9
FidoNews 9-29 Page 1 20 Jul 1992
======================================================================
EDITORIAL
======================================================================
Editorial: Home, home of the deranged
by Tom Jennings (1:1/1)
OK, I'm back in San Fransicko, and I can edit and fool with files over
a LAN instead of through a 16 line by 40 column screen and 19K of
memory. A slight improvement. I made $75 worth of phone calls to
generate FidoNews remotely. How's that for dedication! And I'm broke
and not working! I think I have finally outgrown my Tandy 200. Time to
scrounge for something with a diskette in it. A project for later.
Well, no scandals, flames, outings, net wars, political conspiracies
this week. Too bad. It's getting quiet around here.
Actually, the above reminds me of something Vince Perriello (Josh (my
boyfriend, remember him?) and I had coffee & pizza with Vince in
Seattle) brought up, and I think is so obvious (in hindsight) that I'm
completely amazed I've never heard it before --
Why are there so few regions, of such humongous size, in North
America? Many nets these days are larger than the biggest region in
existence when this whole mess started.
I think it's time to split existing regions into smaller chunks. Not
necessarily all of them, but some are damn large, and probably the
nets within them would appreciate a more cozy environment. We
certainly have the technologies to deal with it.
Speaking of which -- remember the nodelist-size problem of the last
few months? That will look like nothing at all compared to the
programs that will drop dead when FidoNet reaches 65,535 nodes. Some
will probably start groaning at 32,767. Anyone taking bets? FidoNet is
still doubling in size every 18 months or so. We're at 16,000 now. I
doubt all FidoNet-compatible mailer programs out there are using
"long" (ie. 32 bit) integers. I bet, for speed, most use 16 bit "int"s.
I know my Fido/FidoNet does. (It will not handle more than 65,532
simultaneous nodes; it won't bomb, just not let you see the 65,534th
and up.) (Numbers zero, and 65,534 through 65,535 are reserved
internally for magical purposes.)
I got burned once by the changing FidoNet addressing scheme.
Originally, FidoNet had only node numbers, 1 through 65,535. Nets were
invented later (March 11, 1985 to be precise, though not implemented
until June or so). All throughout Fido/FidoNet, I had code that
checked, "if node number = other node number then..." type things all
through it. Many dozens. When nets came along, I had to turn those all
into "if (node number = other node number) AND (net number == other
net number) then ..." and such like.
FidoNews 9-29 Page 2 20 Jul 1992
Only a year later, guess what. Zones. Oh shit. But I'm a vertebrate, I
can learn. Instead of all that arithmetic checking, I defined a little
data structure called a _NODE, which consisted of the node number, the
net number, and the newly-defined zone number. Instead of in-line
arithmetic checks, I wrote some simple subroutines. Instead of the
previous "if ... AND ... AND ... then ..." it simply read: "if
same_node(node structure, other node structure) then ...".
Yes, it was a bit more work than just adding the "... AND (zone number
= other zone number) ...", but it paid off wonderfully -- when those
confounded POINTS came along... it took no time at all. I simply added
the point data element to the _NODE structure, and changed two (2)
little routines: one to look for ".xxxx" following a node address (ie.
the .4 in 1:2/3.4) and one to check for "point number = other point
number ...". Done! (Also, I might add, old Fido's are very friendly;
Fido version 10 (circa 1985) will accept "2/3.4" and consider it the
boss' address, 2/3) (No it won't accept zone numbers, nor more than
1200 nodes) (don't you hate when people use too many parentheses).
Probably someone will flame me for putting too much techie stuff in
FidoNews. Can't please everyone!
NEXT WEEK: Is 2000 a leap year?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-29 Page 3 20 Jul 1992
======================================================================
ARTICLES
======================================================================
by Stephen M. Dorman
CompuServe: 71340,136
FIDONET: 1:107/236, 1:102/745
Fidonet and Russia: A New Need
I recently received a file over the DIALNET russian network listing
all of the FIDONET boards in Russia, and other parts of the Ex
Soviet Union. I was overwhelmed by the number. There are so many
of us that desire to communicate with Russians, and it would seem
that FIDONET could make a perfect conduit for this type of
communication. Netmail is already in place, and there are also
ECHO conferences.
Therein lies the rub. If one wishes to correspond in English, it
becomes a rather straightforward matter of sending NETMAIL to the
boards in Zone 2. However, if one wishes to correspond in Russian,
it is another matter altogether.
Russian (as represented on MS-DOS machines) is produced via a
Cyrillic font, which is coded using the upper 128 ASCII positions
of the character set. Most of us see these characters as foreign
letters and line drawing characters. The 899 Code page is
implemented by Microsoft, and WordPerfect using a Russian coding
called ALTERNATIVE. (It is an alternative to the old Russian system
called GOST). Fortunately for us, most of the line drawing
characters are spared, and we can use Russian without interfering
with our normal programs. (Two exceptions are the double >> and
<<).
Transmitting NETMAIL in 8 Bits, so as to arrive in Russia looking
like Russian, and receiving mail, requires some forethought. First,
it cannot be sent via INTERNET. Internet is a 7 bit system (as it
CompuServe), so it can only be done if the files are encoded using
a 7 bit encoding system like UUEncode.
So armed with all this information, I composed a letter in Russian
to be transmitted. My first problem came when various boards would
not receive certain of the UPPER 128 ASCII characters. Some would
drop an ASCII 227, and convert it into a backspace. I was also
concerned that some postmaster enroute would see the letter and
thing that it was trash, and discard it. I am still looking for
a board that 1). Sends NETMAIL, and 2). Can accept all upper 128
ASCII characters in NETMAIL.
Next I sought an ECHO conference for discussing the problems and
interests of those in Russia. I tried the USA EUROPE conference
but was immediately admonished to use English only. In fact, all
the conferences (those at least that I know about), restrict
language to English. There is a Spanish and German conference, but
I assume Russian would also be not welcome there.
FidoNews 9-29 Page 4 20 Jul 1992
It is time that FIDONET steps up and keeps pace with the rapidly
changing political world. It would be very nice to have an ECHO
conference that 1). Supports the use of Russian, and 2). is echoed
to Russia.
I am currently developing a RUSSIAN.CPI code page for MS-DOS. It
is almost finished. With it, and an appropriate keyboard switcher,
I can produce Russian and English at the same time in Word
Processing, or Telecommunications. This system is free, and will
be available on CompuServe in the foreign language forum as soon as
it is complete.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fredric L. Rice
FidoNet 1:102/890.0 - The Skeptic Tank.
(818) 914-9551
One of the more noted comments one will hear every now and then in the
Echo Conferences is that the origin lines of Users do not reflect the
moods and opinions of the User yet will usually reflect the moods and
opinions of the System Operator. This is actually an artifact of the
application of 'clever' sayings and remarks being used in the origin
line rather than the name of the system as it seems was originally
intended. Indeed, you might recall a few comments in FidoNews about
the fact that the origin lines are being somewhat 'abused.'
Well good. Let's abuse them some more. To my knowledge, there is no
utility, door or otherwise, which allows Users to tailor their origin
lines for the Remote Access systems they're posting messages with. For
this ability, I've developed a DOOR program which will allow Users to
enter any origin they wish, provided it is from 10 to 60 characters in
length and their security rating is of a certain value or higher.
How it works:
To offer a description of the process, let me describe how it works on
my system. Your system may choose a different route, of course, due to
the very good flexibility of Remote Access.
1) My WELCOME.* files have the following control sequence in them:
^X *C /C U-ORIG APPLY
This will cause the U-ORIG program to open up the DORINFO1.DEF file
and extract the Users name, com port, and security value. The program
will also extract configuration information out of a file called
U-ORIG.CFG which contains:
FidoNews 9-29 Page 5 20 Jul 1992
o A default origin line
o A minimum security level value
o The path to the Remote Access root directory
If the security values don't match or allow the User to apply his or
her own origin line, then the program exits back to Remote Access. If
the security value allows it, the Users origin line (if there is one
yet) is extracted from the U-ORIG.DAT file and written into each one
of the active message folders in the MESSAGES.RA data file. If the
User doesn't have an entry, the default origin line in the U-ORIG.CFG
file is used. This makes sure that a User does not get someone elses
origin line applied to his or her messages.
2) The User may select a menu option which will execute the following:
*M C:\FRED\U-ORIG UPDATE
The program is executed as before only this time, the User is offered
a display of their old origin line (if there is one) and is prompted
about whether it should be change or if a new one should be created.
There is a 30 second time-out on the inputs so that if something goes
wrong, U-ORIG will return to the Remote Access BBS after 30 seconds.
After entering an origin line, the User may (K)eep, (T)ry again, or
(Q)uit all together. If the User elects to Keep the new origin line,
the origin line is saved to the U-ORIG.DAT file along with the Users
name, and the new origin line is applied to the message folders,
allowing any messages entered to have the new origin lines applied.
There is another option and that is to execute U-ORIG without any
option offered on the command line. When this is done, the program
will simply update all of the active message folders with the default
origin line stored in the U-ORIG.CFG data file.
U-ORIG.LZH is available here for FileRequest and contains the source
code (Written in Borlan C 2.0) so that if you find that it does things
you don't like, you may change the code. If you have an update in mind
or need something done to your particular version, let me know and I
will work with you on it and FileAttach the update for free.
Fredric L. Rice
1:102/890.0. The Skeptic Tank.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
UPLink - Education for the Public
by Joshua Penix (1:203/67)
Recently, many of you have probably seen TV documentaries and
mini-series based on UFO sightings, abductions and other assorted
paranormal phenomena. Some of you may believe that what you saw is
true, others may be skeptical.
FidoNews 9-29 Page 6 20 Jul 1992
We believe that the general public should be educated about the facts of
paranormal occurences so that each individual can make his/her own
decisisons about what they should believe and what they should
discredit. Therefore I would like to introduce UPLink (UFO, Paranormal,
etc. Link). UPLink is a file network of text files dealing with UFO's,
metaphysics, visitations, paranormal occurrances and other similar
topics.
UPLink is being established to help augment the public's knowledge of
these subjects. Our goal is to make available the most diverse array of
literature written by noted scientists, military officials, and other
people who have been directly or indirectly involved with the above
phenomenon.
We hope that the text files will have a broader viewing audience,
allowing for greater critical and skeptical evaluation.
DISCLAIMER: The officers of UPLink do not guarantee the legitimacy of
any information passed through UPLink. However, attempts will be made
to weed out clearly illegitimate documents. Also, opinions stated in
the literature do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the UPLink
officers, nor of any BBS system involved with UPLink.
Information: To participate, you or your sysop need to set up TICK or a
similar program which can process *.TIC files. TICK v2.10, written by
Barry Geller, can be obtained from my system (1:203/67) under the
filename of TICK210.ARJ, or the magic filename of TICK. (95k, available
at
v.32bis/v.42bis)
The TICK tag name of the file net is UPL_TEXT. To start receiving
files,
I need the following information sent to me in a netmail message:
BBS's name, number and netmail address(es).
Sysop's name and voice number.
A TICK password for your system.
Once the above is sent, you may start polling my system. You will
receive a letter with details specific to your system, as well as some
rules and general information.
For further information, or if you have any questions, contact by
netmail:
Joshua Penix
1:203/67 - FidoNet
20:202/0 or 20:202/16 - MailNet
Thank you - Dan Brown, Steve Jones, Joshua Penix -- Founding Officers
Thank you,
FidoNews 9-29 Page 7 20 Jul 1992
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Hampson
1:153/733
The JAZZ echo is now on the BACKBONE
------------------------------------
So, you ask....who cares? It appears that quite a few people do,
actually. I myself care because it means that more people will be able
to easily join in the discussions and general philosphizing about some
of the Jazz greats, or Jazz (soon to be) greats. It also means that
you, the reader can easily hook in without worrying about LD polling
regularily to keep up with the happenings in the world of Jazz.
Why even start a JAZZ echo?
Well, after some hunting around and finding various music echos that
were general, or not in the vein we were looking for, it dawned upon me
that we could start a JAZZ echo, at least here in BC or Region 17. Like
any good thing, word spread and people were asking for feeds from
Alberta, Ottawa, New Orleans, and others from Texas were looking forward
to seeing the echo as well. In almost ANY city (except maybe some
really "country" places) Jazz is always alive and a part of the culture.
It is this life that we are tapping into, and helping new Jazz
afficianados with choices regarding which of the many artists that s/he
might be considering as a baptism into the world of the music of "Body and
Soul".
In short, in the Jazz echo, the only restriction is that the discussion
pertain to Jazz. It may range from a question of why some great changed
labels when the first had better recordings, to a review of the latest
events at the Montreal or New Orleans Jazz festival.
So ask your echo hub to hook you up to JAZZ, and drop us a line about
your tastes and interests, some may disagree, while you may find out
some things you didn't know before.
Looking forward to reading you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-29 Page 8 20 Jul 1992
======================================================================
LATEST VERSIONS
======================================================================
Software Versions List
Please refer to the article in this issue...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-29 Page 9 20 Jul 1992
======================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
======================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
Editors: Tom Jennings, Tim Pozar
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello
"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/1
Internet fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
BBS (415)-863-2739 (2400 only until further notice!)
(Postal Service mailing address) (have patience)
FidoNews
c/o World Power Systems
Box 77731
San Francisco
CA 94107 USA
Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
amateur electronic mail system. It is a compilation of individual
articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The
contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the
rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those
of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews.
FidoNews is copyright 1992 Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews (we're
easy).
OBTAINING COPIES: FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from
the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from
various sites in the FidoNet and via uucp. PRINTED COPIES mailed
may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each PostPaid First
Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere, mailed Air Mail.
(US funds drawn upon a US bank only.)
BACK ISSUES: Available from the following sources (and possibly
others), via filerequest or download (consult a recent nodelist for
phone numbers). Back issues are *NOT* available from FidoNews 1:1/1.
FidoNet 1:102/138 (All issues)
FidoNet 1:216/21 (All but 18 issues)
FidoNet 1:125/1212 (All except 7-47)
FidoNet 1:107/519.1 (All issues)
2400 bps: +1-201-473-1991
9600 bps HST: +1-201-473-2853
FidoNews 9-29 Page 10 20 Jul 1992
Internet ftp.ieee.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonew/fidonews
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
from 1:1/1 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC".
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco
CA 94107, USA and are used with permission.
Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea".
-- END
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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