983 lines
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Plaintext
983 lines
50 KiB
Plaintext
Volume 3, Number 32 25 August 1986
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+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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| _ |
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| / \ |
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| /|oo \ |
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| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
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| _`@/_ \ _ |
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| International | | \ \\ |
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| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
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| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
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| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
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| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
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| (jm) |
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+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
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Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
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FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
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Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
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You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
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FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1.
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Copyright (C) 1986, by the International FidoNet Association.
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All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted
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for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
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please contact IFNA.
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The contents of the articles contained here are not our
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responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
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Everything here is subject to debate.
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Table of Contents
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1. EDITORIAL
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What a Weekend!
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2. ARTICLES
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A Colorado Springs Diary
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Butch Walker Speaks Out
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Josh Gordon Chimes In
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A Voice from the Mist
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Message encryption utility
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Poems of a Fido teenage user
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Dealing with Seagate
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3. NOTICES
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The Interrupt Stack
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Metro-Fire Fido Dines Out!
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Mailcost 1.4 - Outgoing Host Accounting Program Updated
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Fidonews Page 2 25 Aug 1986
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=================================================================
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EDITORIAL
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=================================================================
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What a Weekend!
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Now that I've been back home a few days, I think I've recovered
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enough to write about the conference. I had planned on borrowing
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a PC on Sunday and writing something for last weeks newsletter
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about it, but I was so exhausted from three nights of less than
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five hours sleep per (often MUCH less) that I just wasn't up to
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it. Last weeks newsletter got delayed anyway due to yet another
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modem glitch, so it's probably just as well.
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All in all I'd say it went pretty well. I certainly would not
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have missed it for anything! It was a bit long to substitute
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caffeine for sleep, but it was worth it.
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There were quite a lot of rough edges. Nobody involved had ever
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run a conference before, and it did show once in awhile. Also,
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the whole thing got started so late that we didn't get first call
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on the rooms. We were constantly being pushed out by the hotel
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management to make room for a wedding reception, or some such.
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Still, COSUG did a masterful job.
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Also, COSUG got most of it either on tape, videotape, or both.
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They volunteered in a moment of weakness to transcribe it all for
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a series of FidoNews columns, and I mercilessly pounced, so keep
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your eyes on this newsletter in the coming weeks.
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But many people recovered even faster than I did. I got home to
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find no less than four articles about the conference waiting for
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me. I'm including them in this issue, along with anything else I
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may get before the deadline. As you'll see, quite a lot of
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controversy got stirred up. Also, quite a few solid points were
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made.
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It says I'm the editor, so I guess I'll be editorial and express
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some opinions. Here are my thoughts about what happened that was
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the most significant:
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1) Randy Bush presented the report of the FidoNet Technical
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Standards Committee. This is a group that has been engaged in
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documenting what FidoNet is and how it works. Not the
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politics -- just the stuff that goes over the phone line. You
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know, technical stuff. This will have, I predict, long range
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impact for many years to come. Expect to see a whole crop of
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FidoNet compatible software coming down the pike. Two cases I
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know of: Bob Hartman (who recovered VERY fast) took only two
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days to come up with a primitive FidoNet mailer based on the
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spec, so we know it works. And Phil Becker (author of TBBS)
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was seen floating around, and now has a copy of the specs, so
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you can probably expect TBBS to start doing netmail before
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long.
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Fidonews Page 3 25 Aug 1986
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2) A great many people expressed concern that Ken Kaplan is
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becoming too remote from the day-to-day hurly burly of being a
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sysop. I don't really see how that could be, but he's
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certainly going to be more accessible in the future. Step one
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of this is:
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3) An echomail conference is being established for IFNA business.
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Mike Hamilton will be coordinating it, and since in any given
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group Mikey will be representative of the dissident elements,
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it will certainly be an open (and active) conference. Contact
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Mikey at 103/501 if you want to link into the free-for-all.
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4) We absolutely MUST do this again! At least four nets offered
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to sponsor next year's conference. Even COSUG offered to do
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it again (they must be real gluttons for punishment!)
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All in all, it was an interesting and stimulating experience. I
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have no doubt that you'll be reading a great deal about it in the
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weeks to come. One word of caution, though: Please keep in mind
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that you are hearing second hand reports, and in many cases you
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are hearing about things that were suggested or discussed. Most
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of what got discussed will never actually take place.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Fidonews Page 4 25 Aug 1986
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=================================================================
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ARTICLES
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=================================================================
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Bob Hartman, 132/101
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A Colorado Springs Diary
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I can't believe that it has been 4 days since I returned from
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Colorado Springs. In that time I have not yet seen any mention
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about what happened out there. Perhaps this is due to normal lag
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time, but perhaps it is just that no one has taken the bull by
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the horns and set it down in writing. Well, I guess I'll do it
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if no one else will. This will probably turn out to be a couple
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of messages long, so bear with me as we go through the 4 days of
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the birth of IFNA.
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Thursday 8/14/86:
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This was the first day of the conference, and it was pretty
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strange to see the looks on the faces of all of the people when
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they met each other. It was kind of a game to see whether or not
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the person you were meeting looked the same as you had pictured
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them. There was a general BS session, a large party at the SEA
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(Thom Henderson) suite, complete with some munchies and drinks
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(right here and now I would like to thank everyone at SEA for the
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hospitality they gave all weekend long!), there was the usual
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announcements about who was there, who would be talking, etc. It
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was a small prelude to what was in the future. Most of the early
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attendees made it a late night, but those who started IFNA made
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it a 4am night!
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Friday 8/15/86:
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The first real day of the conference! The entire IFNA entourage
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was introduced (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, Thom Henderson, Tom
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Jennings, and Henk Wevers). There was an interesting talk by
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Allen Miller about running multiple Fidos on one system using
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MultiLink. USRobotics made a presentation on 9600 baud modems
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(which was pretty disappointing to me - it seems that each
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manufacturer has its own standard, and a Hayes for example may
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not talk to a USR). Henk Wevers from the Netherlands, and Frank
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Thornley from the UK spoke about communications in Europe (I must
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admit that I missed that one). Tom Jennings gave us all a
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preview of Fido version 12 (just a talk, not a demo). If you
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thought that switching from nodes to net/nodes was bad, wait for
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version 12 when we switch to zone:net/node!!! The new version
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has a lot of bugs fixed, and can support a much larger number of
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nodes. It is now also configured the same way that SEAdog is -
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with a config file instead of those cryptic command line
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switches. After the evening dinner, Ezra Shapiro ("formerly" of
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BYTE magazine - he still does some stuff for them I guess) spoke
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about the microcomputer industry in general. It was quite
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interesting.
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Fidonews Page 5 25 Aug 1986
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Personally during this day I jumped over the fence in terms of my
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involvement with IFNA. I went to the conference as a speaker,
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but mostly I went to represent my network as just another sysop.
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During the day I met with Randy Bush and got a sneak preview of
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the IFNA documentation of the FidoNet mail protocol. Ben Baker
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half jokingly asked if when I received the document I would take
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Rovermsg from being a message system to being the full Fido clone
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that I had started out to write. Well, needless to say I thought
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about it and decided that I probably would. That was probably a
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mistake, but the next thing I knew I was on the Fido Standards
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Committee, and was told I would be the "document tester" by
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actually implementing the stuff. Now all of a sudden I was
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almost an integral part of IFNA, and I had to look at things from
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a slightly different perspective.
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Another major milestone during the day was when it became public
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knowledge that there were IFNA membership forms being circulated
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and that it would cost $25 to be a VOTING member of IFNA. Note
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that it says VOTING member.
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Saturday 8/16/86:
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There were several talks this day. The first was by Andy Foray
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(I hope I got that right) from SEA on the internals of ARC.
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Since he had to run a little bit overtime I guess people were
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very interested. Next came my talk on the UNIX Gateway that I
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run. Then was probably the most interesting talk of the weekend,
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Dave Hughes spoke about the NAPLPS graphics environment. I don't
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really want to talk too much about it, but if you are interested
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in graphics, you should probably read up on NAPLPS. Well, all of
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that happened before lunch, then the S**T hit the fan!
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The lunch time meeting was supposed to be the first annual
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business meeting for a new non-profit organization called the
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International FidoNet Association (IFNA). Well it was quite a
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fiasco. I don't think that anyone had any idea about what was
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going to unfold. As a little bit of background, it was not yet
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clear what the $25 paid the day before was actually going to
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cover. It was unclear what constituted an IFNA member. It was
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unclear what the goals of IFNA were. In general, there were only
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5-6 people who knew anything, and they were all at the podium,
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not in the audience. Well, George Wing from COSUG (who is a
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lawyer) tried to explain what the IFNA Articles of Incorporation
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said (there are three board members Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, and
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Thom Henderson - only because those are the only addresses Ken
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had when he went to the lawyer to draw up the papers). George
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did not expect that anything would go differently from other
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start-up meetings where in general the membership is asked
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whether this is ok, and everyone says yes. Well in this case he
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did the usual thing, asking for those that were for this, and
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those that were against. The aye's won. In theory IFNA was now
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born. Then many people wanted to have discussion on the matter.
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The term "railroaded" came up many times. Since we were about to
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get kicked out of the lunch room, it was decided that the vote
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was null and void, and that the meeting would continue in the
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afternoon sessions. Basically the only thing resolved was that
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Fidonews Page 6 25 Aug 1986
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it became obvious that the opposition was not a lone individual,
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but a fairly sizable group of sysops (the aye's barely won in the
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first "railroaded" vote).
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In order to give people a chance to settle down, Randy Bush then
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spoke (as scheduled) on the Fido Standards Committee. It was the
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first time that many of the sysops realized that there was a
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movement to document everything. It was interesting, and I can
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say from personal involvement that Randy has been doing a great
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job. He should get a medal for what he has been able to
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accomplish. I nominate him for the First Annual Fido Citizen of
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the Year!
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After Randy spoke it was time for the S**T hitting the fan part
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II. To keep people under control, Ezra Shapiro volunteered to be
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the chairperson for the meeting (he did an excellent job, and is
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first runner-up to Randy for Fido Citizen of the Year, he may
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have won it except he is no longer a sysop). This meeting lasted
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for a couple of hours with everyone speaking their piece on what
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they thought of IFNA. It was an extremely emotional session, and
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it is very hard for me to remember the details. Suffice it to
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say that in the end the vote was to have the Board of Directors
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that are on the original Articles of Incorporation be the
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temporary board until January 1, 1987. Their task is to create
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the by-laws for IFNA. This will include what constitutes a
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member, who can vote, what the IFNA goals are, etc. Basically on
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January 1, they are supposed to have ready for a general vote,
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what some people thought should have been ready for this meeting.
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I would just like to say that Ezra Shapiro summed it up best by
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closing the session with a statement that said (as near as I
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remember it) "I just want to go on the record as saying that if
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these 3 guys [Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, and Thom Henderson] f**k up,
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I am going to be the first to jump all over them. It would be
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the downfall of the net, and that can't be allowed to happen". I
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am sure that I shouldn't have used quotes, but whoever has the
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tape recording of the meeting can transcribe what was really
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said.
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After all of the excitement of the day, the evening was spent at
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the Flying W Ranch where a good time was had by all. Then came
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wind-down time where individuals met and discussed things that
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had not yet been said, etc. Again the SEAdog suite was the prime
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meeting place. It was really the final time that you could get
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together with anyone that was at the conference. Sunday 8/17/86:
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The morning had a trip on the Cog Railway up to the top of Pike's
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Peak. It was a good trip, and it was nice to really see what
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Colorado had to offer. Most of us had spent 3 straight days in
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the Hilton talking, although my wife has since informed me that
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Colorado Springs was a very interesting place - I'll have to go
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back some time.
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General Comments and Personal Observations:
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First and foremost I guess I would like to say that this meeting
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showed that FidoNet is alive (although not quite as well as it
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Fidonews Page 7 25 Aug 1986
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could be). Those sysops that did not attend should be quite
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disappointed. Next year we should all attend. The 10% turnout
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for this one was probably larger than expected, but with enough
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advance warning and preparation we should probably shoot for 50%
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next year. We all have a personal stake in this thing.
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Secondly I would like to clarify what I believe is the position
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IFNA is taking on the nodelist. It was clear from the meeting
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that the major cost of running IFNA is NOT the distribution of
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the nodelist. I repeat, the major cost is NOT the distribution
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of the nodelist. The major cost is in phone calls dealing with
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people who want to know more about Fido, and in answering the
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mail people send to inquire about Fido. Since the preparation of
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the nodelists is semi-automatic, and regional coordinators POLL
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IFNA for it, the cost of distribution is not what is hurting
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them. Anyway, after spending about 1 1/2 hours of a 2 hour
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flight from Colorado Springs to St. Louis talking with Ken Kaplan
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and his wife Sally, I think that what is "official" policy is
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that it will not cost anyone to be in the nodelist! It will cost
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a sysop, or anyone else $25 to be a VOTING member of IFNA. This
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will entitle you to vote on future directions of the
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organization, and also to use additional IFNA services (which are
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many and varied and will be implemented as time/money allow).
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According to Ken, the only way that money will be charged for
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entry into the nodelist will be if it becomes absolutely
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necessary to slow the growth of the network for technical
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reasons. This is based on the assumption that enough people will
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join IFNA based on their "extra services". If this is not the
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case, then to generate the revenue required to keep Ken, Ben,
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etc. from going broke helping people, it may come to paying to
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get into the nodelist. I may be naive, but it seems to me that
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$25 to be a voting member is a good deal. I certainly have asked
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$25 worth of questions since becoming a Fido sysop (I couldn't
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have created RENUM or ROVERMSG without asking a lot of
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questions).
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A final observation: Ken, Ben and Thom are supposed to start an
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Echomail conference dealing with what should be in the IFNA by-
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laws. I haven't seen it started yet, so how about getting on the
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stick guys. If we don't start now while things are fresh in our
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minds we may lose a lot of input.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Fidonews Page 8 25 Aug 1986
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Here is the text of a message from Butch Walker (161/1) to Tom
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Jennings regarding the Conference:
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Tom-
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You probably noticed that I wasn't in Colorado Springs. [grin].
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I have only heard from 2 attendee's so far, but what I heard was
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not encouraging. I was very upset to hear that proxy votes were
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not accepted for those of us who could not attend. It seems to
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me that the deck was stacked from the beginning, or am I missing
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something?
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Let me say, that I have no problem with you charging for Fido,
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but I would like some more information along that line. For
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example, what will the cost be, what constitutes a version, how
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often will the documentation change, etc. One of the advantages
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of the current system is that a potential Sysop can download
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things, get his system setup and running and then apply to join
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the net. If you are going to start charging for the software and
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there will be no downloadable docs how does the new sysop come on
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line? Also if IFNA is going to start charging for the nodelist,
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do I start charging for helping a new node come on line? I mean
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what the hell, let's all get greedy. Maybe I should start
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charging for my services as a host?
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What is IFNA going to do with the bucks it collects? What can I
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and the members of my net expect in return other than the
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nodelist, which is automated and without myself and the rest of
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the hosts sending in our updates wouldn't exist anyway. Am I
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going to be reimbursed for my costs in putting the nodelist
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together? Or how about my costs to mail my changes in or to
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download the nodelist and distribute it each week? I mean if
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someone is going to make bucks off of my efforts, shouldn't I get
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a piece of the pie? Are either you or IFNA going to provide
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local support for my nodes when they need help or run into a
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problem, how about to the brand new Sysop that wants to come on
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line and join the net? Is IFNA going to hold his hand by phone
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to get him on line the way I and some of my Hubs do now? Do we
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maybe get a commission for the memberships we sell?
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I will carbon copy this to Ken. I would appreciate some answers
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to the above questions. After all we have an excellent medium
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here for exchanging information, ideas, discussion and gathering
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votes. What a novel idea, electronic communication!
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Fidonews Page 9 25 Aug 1986
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Here is the text of a message from Josh Gordon (161/93) to Butch
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Walker regarding the Conference:
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Butch:
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The article was interesting and about what I expected. I'm not
|
||
particularly concerned about the actual charges; it represents a
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small portion of my phone bill, at any rate (though that might
|
||
not hold true for everyone), and wouldn't hurt me. The politics
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are also not surprising; the lack of a published agenda and the
|
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manipulation and secrecy by the folks with a vested interest is
|
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the offensive part, and I'm more than willing to write that off
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as small group dynamics in a semi-anarchist organization (i.e.,
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FidoNet Sysops, as opposed to the inner core of IFNA czars).
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However, we have certain defenses against this. IFNA (being by
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definition a non-profit corporation) has to have certain things:
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a set of by-laws is the most important. We (Fidonet sysops) are
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the interested class, and it would be hard for the Comintern (oh,
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sorry, the IFNA board) to do much of anything without most of the
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Sysops agreeing. If they act heavy-handed enough, piss on them--
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we can have our own goddamn network without ANYTHING on their
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||
part. We don't need them at all unless we WANT them. So far the
|
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services have been merely providing a nodelist; I've seen nothing
|
||
else. (Am I missing something?) And most of the tools and such
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||
have been written by people working from pure love, without any
|
||
vested interests (except to get a nice tool for themselves.)
|
||
|
||
I think a period of reflection is called for now. I am more than
|
||
willing to pay TJ $20 for Fido and even another $19.95 for a
|
||
manual--in fact, I would have been happy to pay $19.95 for a
|
||
manual in the first place, rather than have to fool with that
|
||
obnoxiously formatted one that was published in the first place
|
||
(it ate up at least 2/5 of an hour of my time getting it right,
|
||
and my time is worth $50/hour minimum, so...) And $25/yr for IFNA
|
||
is also no big deal; nodes that don't want to pay that amount
|
||
essentially would have to get all their mail routed through their
|
||
hubs or hosts, and if they expected file transfers, they'd have
|
||
to tell the source of the transfer all the relevant info so that
|
||
the source could make a special entry in their xlatgen.ctl or
|
||
whatever. So it's not the potential disaster that Shackleford
|
||
implies. (I'm sure there will be a lot of loud screaming from the
|
||
Mikeys of the world. Tough.)
|
||
|
||
A few thoughts. If all of the Fidos in the world joined IFNA,
|
||
they would have $25,000 to mess around with every year. As a
|
||
non-profit organization, they'd have to do something appropriate
|
||
with that money. None of it should be spent for salaries or
|
||
anything like that; that's inappropriate, and would be grounds
|
||
for people to say "screw them". However, if the money was used
|
||
to cover phone bills of the hosts, then it would make a LOT of
|
||
sense. Hosts are paying a disproportionate share of the load, as
|
||
far as I can see; if there are (say) 100 hosts, then they'd each
|
||
get $250/yr relief for their phone bills. That's about the only
|
||
useful thing I can see such a large amount of money used for.
|
||
|
||
You might want to stick this letter in SYSOP or NET. I'll leave
|
||
Fidonews Page 10 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
it up to you. I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I sure don't
|
||
need the political headaches of taking an activist stance on this
|
||
issue. But the most important thing is maintaining FidoNet as a
|
||
viable mode of communication; if the consensus really is that
|
||
$25/yr will keep the net up, then I'll happily pay it. Keyword
|
||
is CONSENSUS. Changing from an open, free system to a semi-
|
||
controlled system in midstream is fraught with peril. (On the
|
||
other hand, it might filter out the Mikeys and Traceys and Dobyns
|
||
of the world. Sadly, it might ALSO filter out the Shacklefords.
|
||
Oh well.)
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 11 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
Grey Mist
|
||
|
||
Conference Report
|
||
|
||
|
||
Hoo boy! I'm tired! Lots has happened in the past few days, I
|
||
toured Garden of the Gods, went driving through the mountains
|
||
(them suckers are bigger than Texas Hill Country, a little) and
|
||
took a train ride up Pike's Peak. I also found out that Echomail
|
||
is a Fidonet Household word, we had 60-70 boards represented
|
||
there and during my presentation I asked how many were running
|
||
Echomail. 95% of them are! (where do I begin?) The first night,
|
||
things went well, I had arrived Wednesday night and played around
|
||
until the first session Thursday night. My wife had made me a
|
||
shirt with a BIG bullseye on it and the words "Echomail",
|
||
"Creator" on it. I wore that into the meeting and quietly sat
|
||
down near the front. I started hearing whispers and comments from
|
||
behind, some people laughing. Thom Henderson gave an opening
|
||
speech about Fidonet and such, and mentioned message traffic
|
||
going up but didn't say why. One guy shouted "Echomail!" from
|
||
the audience. They called for a round of applause for the success
|
||
of Fido (Tom Jenning didn't show until Friday). As it died down,
|
||
someone hollered, "How about a round of applause for the author
|
||
of Echomail?" Thom and the other people glanced around puzzled,
|
||
and then everyone around me started pointing at me and clapping.
|
||
I slowly stood up and turned around to everyone and when I turned
|
||
my back to the speaker podium, I thought Ben Baker and Thom were
|
||
going to die! They started making bow and arrow gestures at me.
|
||
And so it went. Everyone seemed to want to talk to me, everywhere
|
||
I went someone had a question or suggestion. Pretty neat, I had
|
||
no idea of the impact of Echomail. I figured maybe 30-40% would
|
||
have even heard of it, which I thought was pretty good. I got a
|
||
slew of notes for improvements in Echomail and a much better
|
||
understanding of how it is used. Some people NEED to host-rout
|
||
Echomail, for example.
|
||
|
||
My presentation of Echomail was shared with Rob Barker, author of
|
||
an Editorial in SYSOP about the quality of messages and such. He
|
||
spoke about avoiding messages which mean nothing out of context
|
||
of other messages, personal mail and such.
|
||
|
||
Tom Jennings spoke about Fido v12, due out the end of September,
|
||
I believe. It is a major rework with area-specific capabilities
|
||
lists, 'zones' to support growth of the nodelist (1:124/206),
|
||
1=USA, 2=UK. It will also come with a professionally done manual
|
||
for $35 or so, cost undetermined. No other docs will be
|
||
available, you pay or you don't have docs. There are no plans
|
||
for charging for v12 itself, although a very firm distinction was
|
||
made between IFNA and Fido Software Inc. Tom Jennings is the
|
||
sole owner, officer, etc. of Fido Software, Inc and may do or
|
||
charge anything he wishes. If he wishes to charge IFNA for
|
||
additional code, then he may. IFNA will not be charging for v12.
|
||
|
||
Everything went smoothly until Saturday... Then things blew
|
||
apart! Mikey was causing troubling everytime I turned around.
|
||
At the Business Meeting/Luncheon, IFNA attempted to railroad us.
|
||
Fidonews Page 12 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
Now, such railroading was meant in good intentions. (I.E.
|
||
Railroading is the performance of some act for or to someone else
|
||
without their permission or control. It says nothing about the
|
||
act being good or bad for either party).
|
||
|
||
George Wing waved the Articles of Confederation that Ken Kaplan
|
||
had already filed to form IFNA and asked for a confirming vote.
|
||
No discussion as to what IFNA meant, its rules, etc. Oh, and the
|
||
day before, we were offered membership forms for $25 to join
|
||
IFNA. If you did not pay, you can't vote in the business meeting.
|
||
But at the luncheon, everyone was hollering and banging on tables
|
||
and such. Mikey wanted discussion, wanted to know what IFNA
|
||
intended to do, etc. George was flustered, Thom got quite angry
|
||
etc. George kept saying, "This is just Business BS, lets approve
|
||
it and get on with the more important things. We have to leave
|
||
this room in 35 minutes, we don't have TIME to discuss it. Its
|
||
just lawyer BS, you don't care about it." He was shouted down.
|
||
He had called for a vote without stating WHO could vote, when
|
||
asked he said, "Well, only those who have paid". That upset
|
||
other people who wanted to pay, but wanted to FIND OUT WHAT IFNA
|
||
WAS FIRST. Tom Jennings stated that these people (Ken, Ben,
|
||
etc.) had been running Fidonet for 2.5 years, and that they could
|
||
keep on running it. Mikey wanted to expel Ken Kaplan from the
|
||
Board of Directors (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker and Thom Henderson, 3-
|
||
member board). It was suggested that they expand the board and
|
||
George, etc. just said, "Look. Lets just confirm this paper and
|
||
we can change it later. Once the paper is filed, we can change
|
||
any of the terms, etc. Its just a formality.", but the problem
|
||
was the paper didn't tell who could vote, how to make changes,
|
||
etc. Without a framework for graceful change, relying on the
|
||
good will of the officers, no one wanted to accept it. And the
|
||
officers were offended that no one would simply pay $25 and trust
|
||
them to use the money/power with no strings.
|
||
|
||
Anyway, the meeting time went by without agreement and we had to
|
||
adjourn into the upstairs bar, and clear the agenda of the rest
|
||
of the day. Tempers were flairing and things were pretty bad.
|
||
We tried to discuss in the bar and people still were interrupting
|
||
and hollering. So we broke again and when we came back, Ezra
|
||
Shapiro of Byte was voted to be Chairman and to keep order. Then
|
||
we basically ran a VERY controlled meeting with votes disallowed
|
||
and let everyone who wanted to get up and make a speech and ask
|
||
questions in an orderly fashion. Facts were not disputed and
|
||
such, opinions were allowed to be expressed without response to
|
||
get the feelings out on the table. After 1-2 hours of this
|
||
blood-letting, people began to change and stand up and confirm
|
||
IFNA, thanking them for running Fidonet this well for these
|
||
years. Everyone began to have a better understanding of things
|
||
and feelings.
|
||
|
||
The three officers as INTERIM officers, with the power to draw up
|
||
bylaws and a list of IFNA goals, until Jan 1, at which time we
|
||
will have an election. Until then, an IFNA Echomail conference
|
||
will be set up (initially in SYSOP) to discuss all the issues, so
|
||
as to allow more time for discussion and to bring in those people
|
||
who couldn't make the conference. Everyone felt better and we
|
||
Fidonews Page 13 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
went to the Flying W Ranch!
|
||
|
||
The $25 we paid was considered a contribution, not a membership
|
||
fee. Anyone could ask for it back, but no one did that I saw.
|
||
|
||
(Whew) It was all very exciting and yet very tiring too. I would
|
||
like to discuss this in the next SYSOP PICNIC (which I just
|
||
missed). John Summers was there as was a friend of the
|
||
Wintermute Creator from net 124. (Durn! Sorry, I can't think of
|
||
his name). Three sysops were from College Station, and Jeff
|
||
(Wintermute Creator) from Austin was there. Overall, Texas was
|
||
well represented.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 14 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
From 130/1, The AmERICan BBS, Sysop Eric Ewanco
|
||
|
||
I have written a new utility that I hope many Fido sysops
|
||
will find of use. I am engaged in EchoMail, and I noticed many
|
||
messages on there about message security in FidoNet. I had also
|
||
thought about and read what others had to say about the lack of
|
||
privacy in EchoMail. Private messages in EchoMail are useless;
|
||
not only can all Sysops read them, but even if they couldn't,
|
||
they can ASCII dump the file. So I wrote a utility to encrypt
|
||
Fido form messages so that only the person with the right
|
||
decryption key can read them.
|
||
|
||
The messages are encrypted in this fashion. All printable
|
||
characters excluding the space are encrypted into other printable
|
||
characters excluding the space; this is the range '!' (0x21) to
|
||
'~' (0x7e). Thus, no message utility should barf due to strange
|
||
non-printable codes. Hard and soft carriage returns are not
|
||
encrypted. Originally, I encrypted spaces too, but found problems
|
||
with SEAdog first with word wrapping and changed it. The key can
|
||
be as long as will fit on the command line and must contain only
|
||
the characters mentioned above, lest the chars be encrypted into
|
||
chars out of that range. You may use underscores for spaces. Case
|
||
is sensitive. The parts of the message encrypted are the body and
|
||
subject.
|
||
|
||
MSGCRYPT is naturally compatible with EchoMail. To do this,
|
||
the encrypted text is bracketed with a start and end header.
|
||
When decrypted, any lines before the start marker and after the
|
||
end marker are not decrypted. This goes ONLY for the body; no
|
||
such markers exist in the subject. The subject is only touched as
|
||
far as I know in SEAdog when you reply, and that's before
|
||
encryption.
|
||
|
||
The encryption technique used in MSGCRYPT is not complicated,
|
||
nor as simple as an XOR. The key is scanned and rescanned as many
|
||
times as possible to relate one character of the key with one
|
||
character of the message. These are converted to be based to 0,
|
||
then added and modulated to be within range. A checksum of the 1
|
||
compliments of the characters in the key to up that point is
|
||
made, modulated, add to the current sum, which is then modulated
|
||
and based to 33 again. This is the encrypted character. It seems
|
||
to be foolproof.
|
||
|
||
MSGCRYPT is now undergoing beta testing; but by the time you
|
||
read this, it will probably be released. It is available for
|
||
SEAdog pickup as MSGCRYPT.ARC on 130/3; if you don't have SEAdog,
|
||
drop me a note and I'll file attach and hold a message for you to
|
||
poll.
|
||
|
||
MSGCRYPT will be distributed under the same pretense as
|
||
XLATLIST, ARC, LISTGEN, FIDO, etc. etc. etc. Free to hobbiests
|
||
(we're all freeloaders, I know) but a small charge will be
|
||
required of non-public users, although I will trust them to pay
|
||
it and not push anyone. If you aren't required to pay for Fido,
|
||
you won't be required to pay for MSGCRYPT. I hope many of you
|
||
will have a use for this utility from 130/3.
|
||
Fidonews Page 15 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 16 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
From node 130/3, The AmERICan BBS, Sysop Eric Ewanco
|
||
|
||
I am 16 years old, and I run a very respectable board. I
|
||
recently had a Commodore 64 user on (I know, I usually feel the
|
||
same way), a 14 year old woman, and I got to know her well. She
|
||
told me that she had written some poems and I asked to read them.
|
||
I thought that they were so good that I'd share them with a few
|
||
thousand others, and FidoNews provided the perfect way. So here
|
||
they are; two poems by Lorri Leigh Culp of Burleson, Texas.
|
||
|
||
DREAMS
|
||
|
||
Once in a lifetime
|
||
You have a dream
|
||
The kind of man you've always
|
||
wanted,
|
||
The one you've never seen.
|
||
|
||
You think of him
|
||
You dream of him
|
||
All you can do is stare
|
||
He's the guy you've always wanted
|
||
But now ... he isn't there.
|
||
|
||
Dreams can carry you
|
||
Dreams can kill
|
||
Dreams can hurt
|
||
'Til you get your fill
|
||
|
||
You're in that fantasy
|
||
No one can break
|
||
Until that vital moment
|
||
You some how wake
|
||
|
||
They tear you apart
|
||
inside out
|
||
They say it was just a dream
|
||
They tell you to forget
|
||
But nothing can change what you
|
||
think you have seen
|
||
|
||
-- Written 6-20-85.
|
||
|
||
by
|
||
Lorri
|
||
Leigh
|
||
Culp
|
||
|
||
|
||
Illusions
|
||
|
||
Picture yourself in a dream of
|
||
mirrors
|
||
Wondering where to turn.
|
||
Picture yourself in a room of
|
||
roses
|
||
Fidonews Page 17 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
And wondering who will get burned.
|
||
|
||
Seeing youself alone in the
|
||
darkness
|
||
Wondering what you'll see;
|
||
Seeing youself in a room of
|
||
sunlight
|
||
Wondering what you'll be.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Illusions are wonderful
|
||
Illusions are great
|
||
Illusions can make you wonder
|
||
Is this my fate??
|
||
|
||
Illusions are fantasies
|
||
Illusions are real
|
||
Illusions are touching
|
||
What you can not feel.
|
||
|
||
Picture yourself in a room with
|
||
someone
|
||
Fantasies on your mind;
|
||
Picture yourself in a room alone
|
||
And wondering what you'll find.
|
||
|
||
Someone is there watching and
|
||
waiting
|
||
Waiting for you to arrive;
|
||
But as you look back, deep in
|
||
in your mind
|
||
There are only signs of goodbye.
|
||
|
||
|
||
-- Written 7-11-85
|
||
|
||
Poems (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 by Lorri L. Culp. All rights
|
||
reserved.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 18 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
Robert A. Rudolph
|
||
Fido 109/628
|
||
|
||
Seagate - do you REALLY want their product?
|
||
|
||
|
||
By now almost everyone who knows me knows I love Seagate disc
|
||
drives - they are small, relatively inexpensive, low in power
|
||
demand and easy on your mind because they are as reliable as a
|
||
pet rock.
|
||
|
||
Did you ever wonder what happens if you need a part?
|
||
|
||
My experience is that if you need a part there are lots of people
|
||
who will sell you a whole drive, but NOBODY will sell you a small
|
||
part.
|
||
|
||
I recently bought a second ST-225 for my PC clone. I bought it
|
||
from someone I knew who had upgraded and had a nearly new ST-225
|
||
that he no longer needed. I was glad to get it, and the day I
|
||
brought it home, I took the case off the PC and installed it. I
|
||
made an error or two, which the vendor of my clone cheerfully
|
||
helped me correct. The drive came up and ran. I was happy. Then
|
||
one day I cut power to the PC because of an electrical storm and
|
||
the drive did not come up. In the process of isolating the fault
|
||
(which turned out not to be the drive), on the advice of the
|
||
Seagate folks I removed some terminating resistor packs from the
|
||
PC board on the drives. Did not help any, so I put everything
|
||
back together and took the PC to the clone vendor, who helped me
|
||
isolate a problem to the controller, and replaced the resistor
|
||
pack that I had damaged with one from an in-stock drive, asking
|
||
me to get him another.
|
||
|
||
Well, I HAD HAD another, but it was on my desk and the cat got up
|
||
there and it disappeared. I thought "Well, it is a small part
|
||
that can't cost more than a buck or two, we'll call Seagate and
|
||
see who sells them".
|
||
|
||
So I called Seagate and talked to a number of pleasant people,
|
||
and was reassured that Hamilton-Avnet would sell me parts, so I
|
||
called a Hamilton-Avnet near me and described the part to the
|
||
nice person on the phone, who told me that he would sell me all
|
||
the disk drives at $350 each I wanted but would sell no parts.
|
||
Further discussion ensued, and soon I was told that since I was a
|
||
person and not a business he couldn't even sell me a drive, and
|
||
he had no idea where I could get parts.
|
||
|
||
I called Seagate back and was told that there must have been an
|
||
error in understanding, and that Hamilton-Avnet was the official
|
||
distributor. So I called Hamilton-Avnet in Pittsburgh with the
|
||
same tale. They were a bit nicer - they tried to find the part
|
||
and could not, but said they could probably deal with me if I
|
||
could get the Seagate part number.
|
||
|
||
So I called Seagate back (sound familiar?) and explained what had
|
||
transpired to another nice young lady, who recommended that I
|
||
Fidonews Page 19 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
call the repair facility that Seagate has in Florida. I did so
|
||
and was advised that the small parts would not be available from
|
||
anyone but Seagate since "Seagate has a monopoly on their small
|
||
parts", but I could buy them from the repair facility if I did
|
||
not mind the $50 minimum order policy, or they could sell me all
|
||
the disk drives I wanted at $350 per.
|
||
|
||
I was not then and am not now interested in paying 100 times the
|
||
value of a part, but may have to do that as I am honor bound to
|
||
replace the part that was loaned to me. Seagate's reputation for
|
||
reliability is unparalleled and within the limits of my knowledge
|
||
and experience the reputation is well founded. It does not do my
|
||
impression of the firm any good to learn that no matter what
|
||
breaks if I can find the part at all it will cost me fifty bucks
|
||
for another one. I understand that there are costs involved with
|
||
everything, but I can remember a time when a vendor would simply
|
||
throw a few such small parts in an envelope and send them out and
|
||
mark it up to good will. A firm in West Germany has done that
|
||
several times when I needed small parts for a model railroad.
|
||
|
||
I am willing to pay a reasonable amount, and even put up with a
|
||
certain amount of BS for being foolish enough to have encroached
|
||
on the sacred body of a disk drive, although after almost 20
|
||
years in hardware and software support for such firms as Univac,
|
||
Memorex and Control Data I am more qualified than many so-called
|
||
technicians I know.
|
||
|
||
I STILL think that Seagate has the best disc drive going. My
|
||
opinion of that will probably not change.
|
||
|
||
However, I'll never buy another one. Non-availability of parts is
|
||
unconscionable. Ridiculous costs and open admission of a
|
||
monopolistic policy as regards parts source should not be
|
||
tolerated. Seagate is entitled to a profit. I am entitled to
|
||
serviceability. Counting all parts I could see, there are over
|
||
120 discrete components. At $50 a crack, that is $6000 for a $350
|
||
disc drive. And yet I do not need another drive; I have 2 and
|
||
that is all I need.
|
||
|
||
Perhaps this silliness was caused by some lower level personnel
|
||
at Seagate flexing their muscle, I do not know. I hope that a
|
||
monopolistic practice and a denial of parts to users does not
|
||
represent the official policy of Seagate.
|
||
|
||
Until I know for certain, I'll buy no more Seagate drives.
|
||
|
||
I encourage all of you out in Fido-Land to consider doing the
|
||
same. If anyone asks why, show them this article. If any of you
|
||
know anyone within the Seagate organization, show them this and
|
||
see what the reaction is - and please let me know via FidoMail at
|
||
109/628.
|
||
|
||
And if anyone has a spare terminating resistor pack for a price
|
||
more reasonable that $50, I'll take it - my friend needs it.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Fidonews Page 20 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
=================================================================
|
||
NOTICES
|
||
=================================================================
|
||
|
||
The Interrupt Stack
|
||
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
New Echomail Conference for real and would-be C programmers. The
|
||
conference is now up and running. Contact 103/511 or 124/108 to
|
||
join in. The name of the conference in Echomailish is "C_ECHO".
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Christopher Baker
|
||
Metro-Fire Fido, 135/14(0)
|
||
|
||
Metro-Fire Fido will be having a Labor Day Eve Picnic on Sunday,
|
||
31 Aug 86, from 1400-2000 at S.W. 212 Avenue & 168 Street, on the
|
||
edge of the Everglades.
|
||
|
||
All Fido Sysops and families are invited to attend. If you will
|
||
be in Miami, Florida over the Labor Day weekend and wish to
|
||
attend, send a FidoNet message to 135/14 and I will send you an
|
||
ARC containing a map and details.
|
||
|
||
The picnic will feature a Floppy Disk Throwing Contest and the
|
||
First Net 135 Sysops Meeting.
|
||
|
||
Come on down!
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
David Dodell
|
||
Fido 114/15 - 1/98
|
||
|
||
MAILCOST - the outgoing host accounting program has been updated
|
||
to now support both Fido and SEADog logs. This program with its
|
||
companion program, MAILRPT, allows any net to setup an outgoing
|
||
host. There is now the ability to keep track for cost purposes
|
||
of all packet going through a particular node.
|
||
|
||
If you are running SEADog, MCOST14.ARC can be file-requested any
|
||
time from Fido 114/15.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
* National Science-Fiction and Fantasy Echomail Conference *
|
||
Fidonews Page 21 25 Aug 1986
|
||
|
||
|
||
Contact Mike J at 150/900 for a hook-up.
|
||
|
||
If you're not on the national list, be sure to include your phone
|
||
number.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
|