1445 lines
73 KiB
Plaintext
1445 lines
73 KiB
Plaintext
Volume 4, Number 13 6 April 1987
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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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ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1.
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Copyright (C) 1987, 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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Table of Contents
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1. EDITORIAL
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Editor Unleashed?? Author Unleashed!!
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2. ARTICLES
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CROBOTS Tournament Software
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EchoMail Etiquette - an Alternative to Censorship
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Net 107 Phone Number Changes
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Formation of a new HUB in Net 107
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The IFNA Scorecard
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3. COLUMNS
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Column with No Name
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TANDY 1000 and the Copy OPTION Board
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4. NOTICES
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The Interrupt Stack
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AREA:HPUSER echo area moderated by 138/3
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Fidonews Page 2 6 Apr 1987
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=================================================================
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EDITORIAL
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=================================================================
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This week's guest editorial is by Steve Jordan, 102/2871.
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Editor Unleashed?? Author Unleashed!!
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I have "bit my tongue" also. What IFNA and FidoNet needs is
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leadership. What I am about to say may banish me to freeze in
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some remote place in California. I may be isolated from all
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FidoNet. Actually, I don't have much to lose because I am
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already there. (Lompoc_CA < paradise)
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I wrote an original version of the bylaws. I decided that there
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was enough bitching, and that I should do something. That was to
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be a contribuiton. I surmised that the people in charge were too
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busy to do any thing positve. I was "volunteered" as a co-chair
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of the (in)famous bylaws committee. I was in Nashua, NH.
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(Nashua_NH_Nov < paradise) My bylaws were correctly discarded.
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The present bylaws are flawed. I must take exception to your
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exceptions. (This is at the risk of being redundant and repeating
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myself. Is this redundant recursion or recursive redundancy??)
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TOO MANY DIRECTORS??- yes. We TRIED to change that. That is the
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biggest flaw of the present bylaws. Those twenty should vote to
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reduce their own numbers. But that is unlikely. A mistake that
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we may have to live with.
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OVER ORGANIZED- Yes, it does appear that IFNA is "over"
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organized. We hoped that more than 200 would join. We dreamed
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that 2,000 would join. If 2,000 or 10,000 join, we will need
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more organization. Any bylaws should be room for expansion. If
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we did not want expansion, we should have kept the nodelist at
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800, 80, or 8 (depending on when YOU joined.) This process is
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much too painful to be done yearly. 20 directors are TOO many. I
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agree and have fought for a more reasonable 11. It was a
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compromise so that we could go on with our life. I among others
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had hoped to fix it prior to "release."
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NAMES- Yes, we do have a "Board of Directors." Why??? Easy.
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That is how the rest of the world does it. When talking to
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potential members and IRS, it is nice to have a common point of
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reference.
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Does the world need a new set of names for officers? No. Does
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the world need another PC keyboard? Let me see. YOU could
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reconfigure the keyboard in your programs. Maybe in SEAdog 5.0
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when a user hit ALT-H will he get: "Help, you don't need help.
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Help is for wimps. Type ALT-W (for wimp) if you feel you NEED it
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and cannot read the docs."
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Is IFNA the only organization that we need? Is there a world
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beyond Fido? (Now that is an interesting question...)
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FUN- Yes, we need to have fun. Accomplishment is fun. Doing the
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Fidonews Page 3 6 Apr 1987
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impossible is an incredible experience. Sarcasm is fun. Funny
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names are funny names.
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The officers of Capitol PC group enjoy attacking Lotus and Ashton
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Tate. That is fun, too.
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MAJOR point. The biggest problem facing IFNA and FidoNet is
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attracting people who can work and can lead!!! The present Board
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of Directors do not have enough time, energy, money, nor SUPPORT
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to do the job. Non-profit organization run on the volunteered
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time of many. Those volunteers will make mistakes and "flake
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out." They also will put in incredible efforts.
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Our job is to attract those people. Titles help. Committees
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help. Recognition helps. We need an organization ladder that
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others can climb .
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People want change and growth. That is the attraction of
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FidoNet. People want recognition. That is why many
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organizations have a new president EVERY year. One year in the
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limelight for 5 or 10 years of work is not a bad trade. Some
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people like to build their resumes with impressive titles. I own
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my own company. A title means nothing to me, but others are
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different.
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Your criticism are well founded, but a little misguided.
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Politics is the art of compromise. Programming is the art of
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perfection. IFNA is now in the realm of the politicians (good
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AND bad). We have a set of bylaws. Now the job is get them to
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work long enough to FIX them. As I stated in the bylaws
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committee, if we adopt those bylaws with ammendments, we will be
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condemmed to fight these battles for another year (at least).
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Warts and all, we have bylaws. We have policy. I guess our next
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convention will spend a lot of time discussing bylaws and
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election of officers.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Fidonews Page 4 6 Apr 1987
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=================================================================
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ARTICLES
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=================================================================
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CROBOTS Tournament Software - Run a tournament on your BBS!
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By Robert Heller
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Hello, I am Robert Heller and I am the SysOp of a BBS in the
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small town of Wendell, Mass. I run as part of my BBS a CROBOTS
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tournament. CROBOTS is a "game" written by Tom Poindexter of
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Bloomington, IL. It is a subset C compiler and virtual machine
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emulator of sorts. It has a 1000 meter square battlefield in
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which two to four robots battle it out. Unlike the usual arcade
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game, the robots are not controlled by joysticks or paddles.
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Instead the players write a C program that is the embodiment of
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the playing stratagy. The C program(s) are compiled and loaded
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into the robots and the robots then fight.
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On my BBS I have a file area set aside for people to upload robot
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programs. I enter these programs into a database and run a
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program which generates a tournament: it pits the robots in pairs
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against each other and processes the match results. It also
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generates commentary on the matches - sort of like the blow-by-
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blow of a sports writer. It uses a function I translated from
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SNOBOL4 to C to generate "random" English text. Here is an
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excerpt from such a commentery:
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Match set 1
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These hw class matches feature scan.r vs. hxk.r. scan.r was
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written by Randy MacLean, who describes it as "Scanning Robot".
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scan.r has appeared in 105 matches, winning 89 of them with 6
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ties. hxk.r was written by John Hardin, who describes it as
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"Hunter-Killer". hxk.r has appeared in 63 matches, winning 28 of
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them with 1 ties.
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Round 1: After 10260 cycles, scan.r has suffered 100% dammage and
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hxk.r has suffered 96% dammage. hxk.r zeros scan.r, 1-zip.
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hxk.r's strategys were cunning!
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Round 2: After 14085 cycles, scan.r has suffered 17% dammage and
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hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r ties up the series at 1
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rounds each. scan.r's efforts were splendid!
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Round 3: After 11760 cycles, scan.r has suffered 55% dammage and
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hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r edges by hxk.r bringing
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the series to 2 to 1. scan.r's strategys were nifty!
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Round 4: After 7575 cycles, scan.r has suffered 100% dammage and
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hxk.r has suffered 81% dammage. hxk.r ties up the series at 2
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rounds each. hxk.r's strategys were very brilliant!
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Round 5: After 11205 cycles, scan.r has suffered 58% dammage and
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hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r edges by hxk.r bringing
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the series to 3 to 2. scan.r's performances were good!
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Round 6: After 11310 cycles, scan.r has suffered 80% dammage and
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Fidonews Page 5 6 Apr 1987
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hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r increases its lead over
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hxk.r, 4 to 2. scan.r's plays were very slick!
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Round 7: After 11340 cycles, scan.r has suffered 55% dammage and
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hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r widens the gap over hxk.r
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5-2. scan.r's plays were cunning!
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scan.r wins the heat by 3, 5 to 2. scan.r's efforts were bright!
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------(commentary continues)----
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The software to generate the matches and generate the commentary
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is all coded in C and should be portable to almost any system
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with a C compiler. I use David Betz's SDB for the data base -
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this can probably be easily adapted to use another C-callable DB
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system. The program I use runs on my Stride 440 under CP/M-68K
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1.2 and makes use of CP/M-68K chain to program BDOS function -
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the main C program generates a submit (command procedure file)
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that runs the CROBOTS program in match mode and then submits the
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generated file. The last command in the submit file runs a
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second program which analyzes the results of the matches, updates
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the DB, generates the commentary and writes a new submit file
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(pits the winners of each match against each other) and then
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chains to the new submit file. The last command in this submit
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file also runs the second program. When there is only one robot
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left the program exits without chaining.
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CROBOTS itself is available on many BBS's as shareware - the free
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archive contains an executable and documentation and runs under
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MS-DOS. Source code is available at for a small fee (I bought
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the sources and adapted it to run under CP/M-68K).
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My added code is available with complete sources. Presently the
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three pieces (SDB, Tourn, and SNOBOL) are on GEnie (SDB and
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SNOBOL (contains the random sentence generator and support code)
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in the CP/M Roundtable and Tourn in the BBS Roundtable). I have
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upload some of the code to some of the local Fidos. If you are
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interested in getting this software, I can upload the three
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pieces to a Fido somewhere and mail it, although some of the
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files are quite large, or put them on floppies (DEC Rainbow CP/M-
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80/86 (RX50 - single-sided, double-density, 96TPI) format or
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Sage/Stride DSDD 96TPI CP/M-68K format). Sorry, I can't write
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MS-DOS format floppies.
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My system is not on FidoNet, but I can be reached at either Daves
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Fido in Gardner, MA (101/27) or Orange Fido in Orange, MA
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(101/147) or via one of these other networks/services:
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ARPANet: Heller@CS.UMass.Edu
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BITNET: Heller@UMass.BitNet
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BIX: Heller
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GENie: RHeller
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CompuServ: 71450,3432
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Robert Heller
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Sysop, Locks Hill BBS in Wendell, MA
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Fidonews Page 6 6 Apr 1987
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(Locks Hill BBS: 617-544-6933, 19:30 to 07:00 EST, 300/1200 BAUD)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Fidonews Page 7 6 Apr 1987
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____
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/ \
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| \
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| * /
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! ATTENTION ! | | From
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| |
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| |
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| | dela-WARE
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| \
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*NEW* Products | \
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| \
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| \ Mike Jacobs
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| \_ 150/900
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for Fido SysOps | |
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| C= Randall Kobetich
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|___________| 150/130
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dela-WARE
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is a
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ShareWare
|
||
Concept
|
||
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||
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MINILIST.ARC Have you noticed nodes dropping off of your nodelist
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and do not like to have to manually hack it up to
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get mail to move? Fido can not handle over 1200
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nodes. Well MINILIST solves this problem. It uses a
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control file and creates a TINY nodelist for just
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those nodes you wish to do mail with. This can
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include a whole net or just individual nodes. This
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way you will be able to do mail with ALL nodes in
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the nodelist without having to manually change it
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and lose other nodes. GREAT Tie over till FIDO v12
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arrives.
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NODEKILL.COM Have you accidently generated many notes for one
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node that you did not want to send to or is not on
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the nodelist? Well this little utility will kill all
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notes To or From a particular node. This gets rid of
|
||
that nasty, tedious note killing you hate. VERY
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HANDY! (For help type NODEKILL).
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ARCWIPE.COM This nifty little utility gets rid of those stray
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arcmail packets that waste space on your hard-drive.
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Note killing and some programs do not kill the
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associated packet. With this program you set
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parameters as to how many days old a note and packet
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should be when they are to be deleted. Helps get rid
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of having to sort through files. VERY USEFUL! (For
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||
help type ARCWIPE).
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All of these products are File requestable from 150/1. They are
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also available for simple download from
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150/130 Starfleet Command Elsmere,DE 1-302-654-2900
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Fidonews Page 8 6 Apr 1987
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All questions or information are to be directed to Mike Jacobs at
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150/900 and Randall Kobetich at 150/130
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All (dela-WARE) products are distributed under a *ShareWare*
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Concept. This means you are free to copy and distribute to all.
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If you find this program useful, please contact us and we would
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appreciate a Buck or Two. We both might like to get a PIZZA out
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of this.
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ENJOY!! Randall Kobetich & Mike Jacobs
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Fidonews Page 9 6 Apr 1987
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John Simonson, 260/208
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EchoMail "Netiquette": An alternative to censorship.
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Karl Andrews has recently (FidoNews Vol. 4, No. 7, Feb. 16, 1987)
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proposed that the Echomail conferences be censored. I found his
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points to be interesting, and quite valid. Echomail is growing
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rapidly, and is an excellent addition to Fidonet. Along with the
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growth have come "abuses" unfortunately. Most of these abuses
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are (probably) unintentional, the result of new users not knowing
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better, or even old-time Fido users used to regular Fidomail.
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Censorship may be a bit of a draconian measure. It imposes a
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burden on the Sysop, because every message must be screened
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before going out. This screening process could also slow down
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the entire process of getting echomail messages posted. While I
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agree with Mr. Andrews that there should be some censorship, I
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believe it would be better that the "censorship" originate within
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the author of a posting, as UseNet has been doing for some time
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with most of its newsgroups.
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UseNet may provide a good model for Echomail in many ways; most
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of the newsgroups (roughly equivalent to Echomail areas) are open
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to postings from anyone with access to UseNet - although some
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self-imposed restrictions - such as posting to the correct
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newsgroup(s) - are expected of those posting to the net. Other
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newsgroups are moderated, that is all postings are sent not
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directly to the newgroups, but to a central moderator, a person
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(or persons working together) responsible for editing (censoring)
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the postings submitted.
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Echomail could follow a similar scheme; areas for free posting
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and for moderated postings can co-exist. Certain areas could be
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moderated by the Sysop of the Fido originating a posting, other
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areas could be moderated by a volunteer moderator (perhaps for
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each net or region - or zone?), collated at some central node,
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and then re-dispersed. Other areas would be as they are now - in
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that anyone could freely post to them. The only difference that
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I would like to see is that those posting understand Echomail a
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little more (especially vis-a-vis regular Fidomail) and consider
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following some suggested guidelines. (Ahh - we finally arrive at
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the main point of this submission....)
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Like Mr. Andrew, I would like to see Echomail cleaned up a bit.
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Right now, I retain only about five days worth of TECH messages,
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which usually amounts to about 150-200 messages. This takes up a
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*lot* of space on our system, but *can* be very worthwhile.
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||
However, looking at the messages, I see too many that consist of
|
||
a header, the "seen-by" lines, and a single message line
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consisting of something like "I agree with Fred - but check the
|
||
syntax anyway" or "Wow - it was great seeing you at lunch the
|
||
other day, let's do it again." It is also exasperating to think
|
||
that each of these takes up a minimum of 2K on my hard disk.
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||
Because of the fact that Echomail messages often arrive out of
|
||
sequence (or sometimes never) the responses to queries or
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||
Fidonews Page 10 6 Apr 1987
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|
||
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problems can arrive before the query itself - or the query could
|
||
have been removed from the message base weeks before. when the
|
||
response give no clue as to what the original problem was - e.g.,
|
||
"Well, disconnect pin 24 and then check DTR", I - and presumably
|
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others reading the messages on my system - can't benefit from the
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||
wisdom dispensed - and Echomail can be a *very* valuable source
|
||
of information.
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||
|
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UseNet apparently had similar problems (and still does - every so
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||
often, a less-than-circumspect poster gets "flamed" on the net
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for his/her ill advised posting) so that someone wrote a document
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on Network Etiquette, often referred to now as "Netiquette" (my
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dog-eared copy indicates the author is one "Chuq Von Rospach
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(nsc!chuqui)", with an apparent date of Sept. 1984 - although the
|
||
actual document may be older). What I want to do in the rest of
|
||
the article is to generate a clone of Netiquette intended for use
|
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by Echomail users. Don't consider these as a fascist imposition
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on the Fidonet/Echomail world. I think of Netiquette as a set of
|
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very good suggestions; I hope the following, modified to reflect
|
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differences between UseNet and Echomail, will also be taken as
|
||
suggestions. Furthermore, I hope that they are used as a
|
||
starting point, and that they will be refined and improved by
|
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Sysops and users.
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I'll start out with the "Summary of Things to Remember" as
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presented at the end of the original Netiquette, and follow that
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with an expansion of each point.
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||
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======================= Son of Netiquette =======================
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||
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Summary of Points
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1) Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
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2) Be brief
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3) Your postings reflect on you; be proud of them
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||
4) Use descriptive titles
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||
5) Think about your audience
|
||
6) Be careful with humor and sarcasm
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||
7) Only post a message once
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||
8) Please rotate material with questionable content
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||
9) Summarize what you are following up
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||
10) Use mail, don't post a follow-up
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||
11) Read all follow-ups, and don't repeat what has already been
|
||
said
|
||
13) Be careful about copyrights and licenses
|
||
13) Cite appropriate references
|
||
14) When summarizing, summarize
|
||
15) Mark or rotate answers or spoilers
|
||
16) Spelling flames considered harmful
|
||
17) Don't overdo signatures
|
||
----------------------------
|
||
|
||
Expansion of Points
|
||
"Never Forget the Person on the Other Side is Human"
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||
|
||
As pointed out in the Original Netiquette (O.N. hereafter), your
|
||
interaction with the network is through Echomail and a computer,
|
||
Fidonews Page 11 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
and it is easy to forget that there are people "out there". In
|
||
fact, the O.N. is so clear on this, I can think of nothing better
|
||
than to quote the remainder verbatim:
|
||
|
||
"Please remember that people all over the world are reading
|
||
your words. Do not attack people if you cannot persuade them
|
||
with your presentation of the facts. Screaming, cursing, and
|
||
abusing others only serves to make people think less of you
|
||
and less willing to help you when you need it.
|
||
|
||
If you are upset at something or someone, wait until you have
|
||
had a chance to calm down and think about it. A cup of
|
||
coffee or a good night's sleep works wonders on your
|
||
perspective. Hasty words create more problems than they
|
||
solve. Try not to say anything to others you would not say
|
||
to them in person in a room full of people."
|
||
|
||
"Be Brief"
|
||
Clear, concise, succinct postings will have a much more powerful
|
||
effect than a long rambling posting. If your audience isn't
|
||
grabbed by the first screenful, they will likely reach for the
|
||
'n' key and skip the rest of the posting. However, don't cut so
|
||
much that your posting looses its clarity.
|
||
|
||
"Your Postings Reflect Upon You; Be Proud of Them"
|
||
As stated in O.N., writing well is an art, and requires practice.
|
||
Try to avoid grammar and even spelling errors; you will be known
|
||
to many people on Fidonet only through your Echomail postings.
|
||
You know you're a nice person and intelligent to boot - let that
|
||
come though in your postings. You don't want your postings to
|
||
come back to haunt you.
|
||
|
||
"Use Descriptive Titles"
|
||
Fido lets you enter a title, or subject line; I believe that you
|
||
have up to 72 characters. Use that space to let potential
|
||
readers know what your posting is about. Don't ramble, but get
|
||
your point across; the 72 characters area a fixed overhead - 72
|
||
bytes are used, whether or not you fill them with information.
|
||
This subject line is probably more important for Echomail than it
|
||
is for Fidomail.
|
||
|
||
"Think About Your Audience"
|
||
When you post an article (submit a message to Echomail) think
|
||
about the audience you wish to reach. The TECH area is hardly a
|
||
place to post a joke; you would not try to get a Pascal problem
|
||
answered by posting the questions you had to the C_ECHO
|
||
conference. Similarly, it seems rather useless to place personal
|
||
messages ("see y'all for lunch next Tuesday") in an Echomail area
|
||
- it takes up space on many many systems, and is (likely) of no
|
||
interest to anyone on systems other than the originating system.
|
||
If you're sending a message to a friend on another Fido, use
|
||
Fidomail so it goes to your friend; Echomail broadcasts your
|
||
message to all connected systems. Sysops should perhaps make
|
||
users aware that posting messages in Echomail areas results in an
|
||
incredible propagation of that message. These (mostly accidental)
|
||
bogus postings cause the Echomail system to degenerate; if you
|
||
Fidonews Page 12 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
have to wade through 15 useless messages to get at one gem, you
|
||
start to lose interest in bothering with reading Echomail at all.
|
||
|
||
"Be Careful with Humor and Sarcasm"
|
||
Most people use humor in their day-to-day interactions with
|
||
others. But on the phone, or in person, you can see expressions,
|
||
postures, etc., and pick up subtle voice inflections that tip you
|
||
off to attempts at humor. In the cold light of the video screen,
|
||
these cues are lost, and your humor may not be taken as humor -
|
||
and your readers will think you're a jerk, and be offended, when
|
||
all you intended to do is display your magnificent wit and
|
||
fantastic sense of humor. On UseNet people often signal a
|
||
humorous remark with a "smiley face" - a ":-)" construction. Try
|
||
it - you may find that you amuse 97% of the population rather
|
||
than having 98% of the population taking out a contract on your
|
||
life :-)
|
||
|
||
"Only Post a Message Once"
|
||
Recently, some poor (nameless) fellow deluged Echomail with ads
|
||
for a "headhunter" service. Not only was the message
|
||
inappropriately posted (wrong area according to some of those
|
||
flaming the guy), but the guy was remarkably diligent in posting
|
||
- I count 10-15 separate copies of his message (fairly long too,
|
||
compared to most messages) coming into my Echomail areas in 2
|
||
days, with a few more trickling in after that. Once again, I
|
||
think the poster didn't realize the aggravation that he would
|
||
cause, and the extent of the hard feeling directed toward him.
|
||
Remember, these messages cost sysops hard currency to send across
|
||
the phone lines, and take up space on there system, and again
|
||
massive multiple postings debilitate the Echomail network. If
|
||
you have to read ten copies of the same message to get to one
|
||
good message....
|
||
|
||
"Please Rotate Messages with Questionable Content"
|
||
This is a toughie for Echomail users. On UseNet, there is a
|
||
facility that "rotates" text, that is, performs a rough encoding
|
||
of the message text - an 'A' becomes an 'N', an 'M' a 'Z', and so
|
||
on. The news/mail reading software incorporates the ability to
|
||
rotate the text on entry and upon reading, if the user requests
|
||
it. We don't easily have this facility in Echomail; I would
|
||
think that those of us who have a facility such as SuperKey or
|
||
SideKick (PC & clones) or Doit (Rainbows) that allows us to paste
|
||
the contents of a file onto the screen could do something like
|
||
this. Perhaps we need to make available (on Fidos) software that
|
||
does the rotating, so that messages can be prepared with a text
|
||
editor (a good idea anyway - lets you edit and correct errors
|
||
much easier), then rotated, and pasted onto the screen while you
|
||
are in the process of posting your message/article. When reading
|
||
mail, you could cut the text from the screen (again with
|
||
something like SideKick or SuperKey), save it in a file, and
|
||
rotate the text later. This isn't just to protect delicate ears
|
||
(eyes? :-) ) from language that some might consider offensive;
|
||
see the point about marking or rotating answers or spoilers,
|
||
later in this document. You might also consider indicating in
|
||
the subject line that you have rotated some or all of the text of
|
||
the message.
|
||
Fidonews Page 13 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
"Summarize What You are Following Up"
|
||
Another one of my pet peeves about many Echomail postings, is the
|
||
lack of reference to the original query, problem, or posting.
|
||
Some users of Echomail follow the UseNet convention of repeating
|
||
the critical lines of the original, with each line preceded by a
|
||
'>' symbol. UseNet actual carries this further: Postings
|
||
referring to references in an earlier posting use a double '>'
|
||
(>>) and the beginning of each line referenced by the previous
|
||
posting. I've noticed that the "Old Frog" of Rhinelander Wis.
|
||
(Ahh, lovely country up there - I've got relatives near Eagle
|
||
River...), Gee Wong and others follow the UseNet convention, and
|
||
it makes reading their postings much easier. As the O.N. said,
|
||
|
||
> Even if you are responding to the entire article, summarize
|
||
> only the major points you are discussing.
|
||
|
||
"When Summarizing, Summarize!"
|
||
When you request information on some topic from the members of
|
||
the network, it is a common courtesy to summarize and report your
|
||
finding to the net. This way the information is in one place,
|
||
and everyone on the net can benefit. Not everyone will have been
|
||
able to get all responses to the original request, and often the
|
||
best way to respond to requests is via Fidomail rather than via
|
||
Echomail. When summarizing, take the time to edit the replies,
|
||
strip mail headers and "seen-by" lines, and perhaps write a short
|
||
summary. If possible, give credit to those who took the time to
|
||
respond to your request for help.
|
||
|
||
"Use Mail, Don't Post a Follow-up"
|
||
As stated in O.N.: " One of the biggest problems we have on the
|
||
network is that when someone asks a question, many people send
|
||
out identical answers." This can really clog a network. Give
|
||
some thought before posting an answer to Echomail; a direct
|
||
response via regular Fidomail to the person with the question may
|
||
be the best route. If you do choose the latter route, you might
|
||
suggest that the recipient summarize to Echomail. Personally, I
|
||
think there is a fine line to be walked here - it is not
|
||
desirable to inhibit Echomail postings, but we don't need 200
|
||
people all responding with "on page 4-67 of the Dos Technical
|
||
manual, it states...." either. Thus the next point.
|
||
|
||
"Read All Follow-ups and Don't Repeat What Has Already Been Said"
|
||
From the O.N.:
|
||
"Before you submit a follow-up to a message, read the rest of
|
||
the messages in the newsgroup (Echomail area) to see whether
|
||
someone has already said what you want to say. If someone
|
||
has, don't repeat it."
|
||
|
||
"Be Careful About Copyrights and Licenses"
|
||
Again, directly from the O.N., with comments in square brackets:
|
||
"Once something is posted onto the network, it is effectively
|
||
in the public domain. When posting material to the network
|
||
keep in mind that material that is UNIX-related [or PC|MS-
|
||
DOS, for example] may be restricted by the license you or
|
||
your company signed with AT&T [Microsoft, etc.] and be
|
||
careful not to violate it. You should also be aware that
|
||
Fidonews Page 14 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
posting movie reviews, song lyrics, or anything else
|
||
published under a copyright could cause you, your company, or
|
||
the net itself to be held liable for damages, so we highly
|
||
recommend caution in using this material."
|
||
|
||
Occasionally you see requests for copyrighted software "Yo Ernie
|
||
- I need Dos 3.2 to do something that I can't with 2.11 - ya
|
||
wanna send a copy to me - thanks, Bert". Even if the net was
|
||
acquitted of any wrongdoing, legal fees, hassles, etc. take their
|
||
toll.
|
||
|
||
"Cite Appropriate References"
|
||
I can't say it better than the O.N.:
|
||
"If you are using facts to support a cause, state where they
|
||
came from. Don't take someone else's ideas and use them as
|
||
your own. You don't want someone pretending that your ideas
|
||
are theirs; show them the same respect."
|
||
|
||
"Mark or Rotate Answers of Spoilers"
|
||
By answers, we mean answers to jokes, etc. By spoilers, we mean
|
||
those sections of reviews that give away the ending (thus
|
||
spoiling the movie or book for those who haven't yet seen the
|
||
movie or read the book). On UseNet, you can rotate the text as
|
||
mentioned earlier in this document, or you can mark it,
|
||
indicating that the answer or spoiler will appear next; you then
|
||
structure your text so that the reader may avoid seeing the
|
||
answer/spoiler by pressing 'n' the next time the "-more-?" prompt
|
||
is issued. In Echomail we would probably have to pad with blank
|
||
lines (lines with one or two spaces and a carriage return/line
|
||
feed sequence) to force the spoiler to then next screenful. I
|
||
have not tried stuffing a form feed into the text of fido
|
||
message, but that might also force a "-more-" message. You might
|
||
want to include mention of the fact that there is a spoiler, or
|
||
that you have rotated the text in your subject line.
|
||
|
||
"Spelling Flames Considered Harmful"
|
||
Once again, the text of the O.N. says it best:
|
||
"Every few months a plague descends on UseNet called the
|
||
spelling flame. It starts out when someone post an article
|
||
correcting the spelling or grammar in some article. The
|
||
immediate result seems to be for everyone on the net to turn
|
||
into a 6th grade English teacher and pick each other's
|
||
postings apart for a few weeks. this is not productive, and
|
||
tends to cause people who used to be friends to get angry at
|
||
each other.
|
||
|
||
It is important to remember that we all make mistakes [see
|
||
point #1, remember that the other side is a human...], and
|
||
that there are many users on the next who use English as a
|
||
second language. If you feel that you must make a comment on
|
||
the quality of a posting, please do so by mail, not on the
|
||
network [i.e., not via Echomail]"
|
||
|
||
Do refer to point #3 though, and try to make your *own* postings
|
||
as correct as possible.
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 15 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
"Don't Overdo Signatures"
|
||
On UNIX systems (home of UseNet) you can have a "signature"
|
||
appended automatically to the end of each of your mail messages
|
||
or net postings. These typically contain disclaimers "The
|
||
opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect those of
|
||
my employer or any other sane individual - etc., etc. " and mail
|
||
pathways, which tend to be rather convoluted at times in the
|
||
UseNet. However, a signature that is longer than the message is
|
||
of rather dubious taste. This is true on UseNet, and (my
|
||
opinion) more true in Echomail. A one-line message preceded by
|
||
5-6 lines of header, followed by a 10 line signature, followed by
|
||
several lines of "seen-by" information still only gives me one or
|
||
two useful lines.
|
||
|
||
However (more personal opinion) I do believe that signatures have
|
||
a place in Echomail. In fact, I'd like to see a very short
|
||
signature appear at the very beginning of the posting, giving the
|
||
poster's name, net and node. This would make it *much* easier
|
||
for people interested in communicating with the poster to find
|
||
the poster. A UseNet style signature (tasteful and restrained if
|
||
you please!) could take it's place at the tail of the article.
|
||
Why place a name, net, and node at the top? Occasionally, an
|
||
article is truncated in transit - the seen-by lines are usually
|
||
there, but sometimes, a posting kind of dies in mid-sentence.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------
|
||
|
||
The Ten Commandments for UseNet
|
||
|
||
These "commandments" were appended to the end of the Original
|
||
Netiquette article (which appears to have an alternate title of
|
||
"A Primer on How to Work With the USENET Community"). I think
|
||
they're worth including here.
|
||
|
||
I The Net is special; treat it with respect.
|
||
II Always create a clear and concise subject line.
|
||
III Keep thy postings short and never ramble.
|
||
IV Always post to the proper news group.
|
||
V Never post the same thing twice; post once to multiple
|
||
newsgroups or use short pointers where required.
|
||
VI Thou shalt spend 40 days and nights in meditation before
|
||
adding or removing any newsgroup.
|
||
VII Specify clearly if and how thou expectest responses.
|
||
VIII Reply in person whenever possible and limit thy followups
|
||
to truly worthy items.
|
||
IX Read all current articles in a newsgroup before replying to
|
||
any.
|
||
X Use proper English, and prepare postings with an editor
|
||
when required.
|
||
|
||
-------------------------------
|
||
|
||
I've got to extend thanks to Karl Andrews (138/241) for his
|
||
submission to FidoNews. I had been thinking for some time about
|
||
writing this submission, and his article gave me the push I
|
||
needed to actually do it. I hope Mr. Andrews doesn't take as
|
||
Fidonews Page 16 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
much flaming for his suggestions as he expected to.
|
||
|
||
In closing, while I agree with Mr. Andrews about the need to
|
||
clean up Echomail, I would prefer to see the cleaning up done by
|
||
those posting to Echomail. Sysops are still free to zap those
|
||
messages they do not want, to maintain an editorial control by
|
||
the use of the 'k' key. But it would be much easier to educate
|
||
users as to their responsibility when posting to Echomail and
|
||
trust that most users are willing to exercise some self-control.
|
||
At the same time, it would be nice to have some moderated
|
||
echomail conferences, but that would require a considerable
|
||
amount of organization and cooperation among sysops. I hope that
|
||
Fidonet sysops and users can work out a more viable Echomail
|
||
system, as (opinion again!) Echomail is a powerful addition to
|
||
Fidonet and Fidomail. I also hope that this article's
|
||
suggestions are a first step towards an even more useful
|
||
Echomail.
|
||
|
||
Please direct all flames to /dev/nul :-)
|
||
|
||
Much of this article was derived from the Netiquette article
|
||
referenced above. Other parts were independently generated for
|
||
this article. Please feel free to post the list of suggestions
|
||
for FidoNet users on your Fido, Opus, etc., but please do
|
||
acknowledge good old Chuq Von Rospach.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 17 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
Gee M Wong, 107/312
|
||
|
||
Net 107 Phone Number Changes
|
||
|
||
|
||
Network Coordinators:
|
||
Members of Net 107:
|
||
|
||
|
||
Due to a series of unexpected problems in Net 107, several
|
||
systems' phone number have changed, but these changes have NOT
|
||
been included in the current NODELIST (NODELIST.093).
|
||
|
||
The following is a list of systems in Net 107 which have changed
|
||
phone numbers.
|
||
|
||
+--------------------------------------------------+
|
||
| Address System Telephone Sysop |
|
||
| ------- ------ -------------- ------------- |
|
||
| 107/0 HOST 1-201-699-7799 Gee Wong |
|
||
| 107/200 HUB 1-516-367-6387 Don Daniels |
|
||
| 107/210 IGATE 1-201-699-7799 Gee Wong |
|
||
| |
|
||
| 107/326 1-201-918-5310 Michael Fuchs |
|
||
+--------------------------------------------------+
|
||
|
||
|
||
To avoid the possibility haveing the Net choke to death with
|
||
undelivered Net 107 traffic, please override the telephone
|
||
numbers in NODELIST.093 with the numbers listed in the above
|
||
table.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 18 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
Gee M Wong, 107/312
|
||
|
||
Formation of a new HUB in Net 107
|
||
|
||
|
||
On Friday 10 April 1987, half of the nodes in HUB 107/300 have
|
||
been reassigned to a new HUB. This new HUB is 107/500, and it is
|
||
being coordinated by Marv Shelton.
|
||
|
||
Many of the reassigned nodes have been given new network
|
||
addresses. However, the former network addresses will be
|
||
maintained on the NODELIST as duplicate entries until Friday 24
|
||
April 1987, to provide the network with a two week transition
|
||
period.
|
||
|
||
During the transition period, all affected Sysops should start
|
||
making any necessary changes to their network tables (i.e.
|
||
ROUTE.DOG, CONFIG.DOG, MAIL.SYS, AREAS.BBS), and to have all
|
||
these changes completed before the end of the transition period.
|
||
Also, Sysops whose systems have been reassigned to HUB 107/500
|
||
may find it helpful to use their new network address as their
|
||
primary network address, and their old network address as their
|
||
secondary network address, during this transition period.
|
||
|
||
The table below contains a list of nodes which will be reassigned
|
||
to HUB 107/500. Basicly, all nodes in northern NJ have been
|
||
reassigned to HUB 107/500, and all nodes in central and southern
|
||
NJ have been kept in HUB 107/300.
|
||
|
||
For those Sysops in NJ, if you feel that you have not been
|
||
assigned to the correct HUB, please send a private message to Gee
|
||
Wong at 107/300, 107/312, or 107/317 as soon as possible.
|
||
|
||
+----------------------------------------------------+
|
||
| Old Address New Address Sysop |
|
||
| ----------- ----------- ---------------- |
|
||
| N/A 107/500 Marv Shelton |
|
||
| |
|
||
| 107/7 * System dropped from Net * |
|
||
| 107/313 * System dropped from Net * |
|
||
| |
|
||
| 107/311 107/511 Marv Shelton |
|
||
| 107/319 107/519 Marv Shelton |
|
||
| 107/322 107/522 Peter J Keller |
|
||
| 107/323 107/523 Al Arango |
|
||
| 107/324 107/524 Tom Marshall |
|
||
| 107/328 107/528 Burt Juda |
|
||
| 107/329 107/529 Roger Sakowski |
|
||
+----------------------------------------------------+
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 19 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
Vince Perriello, 141/491
|
||
|
||
The IFNA Scorecard
|
||
|
||
|
||
I just thought I'd share my opinions of most of the individuals
|
||
and/or topics in the great International Fidonet Nuclear Attack
|
||
(IFNA) squabbles of the last year (almost). Maybe you'll agree,
|
||
maybe you'll disagree. But for me, the healing will start when I
|
||
get the poison out of the wounds. So here we go.
|
||
|
||
Let's start with IFNA itself. It was the right thing to do. Ken
|
||
and Ben had to avoid liability for the contents of the nodelist
|
||
(remember that's why the corporation was created in the first
|
||
place!). I also think that using it as an entity to get
|
||
concessions from manufacturers for members as a group, and to
|
||
influence committees and legislators, made so much sense I'm
|
||
still dumbfounded at the way things turned out in Colorado.
|
||
|
||
Colorado. Give the mob two points for muddying up the waters. But
|
||
others were at fault too. Read on.
|
||
|
||
The Bylaws. What do they mean? I think what we have here is some
|
||
kind of cosmic committment to save the world every other day, but
|
||
not until we've gotten their permission to do so, notarized, by
|
||
registered U.S. Snail. It's full of garbage that was put there to
|
||
appease people who weren't going to be happy unless they
|
||
themselves were appointed Emperor. It will sink of its own weight
|
||
unless fixed quickly by the elected BOD.
|
||
|
||
Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker. Too much silence. We should have heard
|
||
their voices more. Too much transpired in the "early phases"
|
||
without any word from them. It contributed to the mess in
|
||
Colorado. People who would have gladly gone along with IFNA
|
||
properly presented instead wound up among the Complainers,
|
||
because they had a legitimate beef about the amount of things
|
||
that had already been done without prior notification. I might
|
||
add that they never got more vocal, in SYSOP, IFNA, or anywhere
|
||
else, and that that was even WORSE.
|
||
|
||
Thom Henderson. He did his best. He did very well. Usually he was
|
||
able to respond with some semblance of a sense of humor. But he
|
||
was just as doomed as Bob Dole in 1976 (remember? Gerry Ford had
|
||
to be a nice guy so Dole got to be the "Hatchet Man"? People
|
||
still remember and dislike him for the energetic way that he
|
||
carried out his mandate). Too bad. While his orientation in
|
||
almost any situation I've seen him in thus far is slightly too
|
||
commercial for my taste, he has a good head on his shoulders, and
|
||
he really CARES about what's coming down. And he puts the
|
||
commercialism aside when the situation clearly calls for that.
|
||
|
||
The Secret Modem Committee. I can't hold anyone responsible for
|
||
not communicating what they did yesterday while they were still
|
||
catching up on their sleep. My synapses don't work too well
|
||
either under those circumstances.
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 20 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
Here's some more opinions of the key players and entities. Again,
|
||
these are my opinions, certainly not those of the management. I
|
||
didn't even ASK my wife! :-)
|
||
|
||
Bob Hartman. Basically nice guy. Very intelligent. He never knew
|
||
what hit him. I think he's almost recovered now. Good thing. He
|
||
writes good software for the community. Some of us even PAY to
|
||
use it.
|
||
|
||
Thomas Gentry. In retrospect I think he was trying to make some
|
||
kind of clever statement that was not exactly in favor of the
|
||
IFNA nodelist copyright. It wasn't that clever. And he got more
|
||
FLAMES than he probably deserved (assuming that I'm right about
|
||
the "statement").
|
||
|
||
Ken Shackelford. He loves FLAMING like Ron loves zapping Rooskie
|
||
missiles. He had a lot of important inputs, but sometimes I had
|
||
the feeling he was saying things just to see how people would
|
||
react. At times that was a RIOT. Other times I didn't like it as
|
||
much. But he has a good heart. And he'll make a good BOD member,
|
||
especially since he has the biggest flame thrower this side of
|
||
the Volga.
|
||
|
||
Tracy Graves. For me, the most significant thing about Tracy was
|
||
that I could not, for the longest time, determine gender. Tracy
|
||
LIVES the gender neutral mind that certain others only wish for.
|
||
But I digress. Tracy is a reasonable intelligent man who still
|
||
hasn't woke up and smelled the coffee. But there's always hope.
|
||
Sometimes the most profound intellectual struggle is within
|
||
yourself. I'm rooting for him.
|
||
|
||
Adam (to paraphrase John Lennon,"You know my number, look up my
|
||
name") Selene. and for that matter Gillian Boardman. I still
|
||
don't know what gender neutrality had to do with IFNA. But I'll
|
||
defend to the death their right to share their own feelings in
|
||
the matter. "Adam" was extremely vocal in IFNA. That's worth some
|
||
recognition. And recently it sounds like "Adam" is going to do
|
||
what he can to help clean up the mess (see my earlier comment on
|
||
the by-laws). Good.
|
||
|
||
Randy Bush. Good head. Was that a TANTRUM I saw him throw
|
||
recently? Well, the rest of us own balls too. Take yours home
|
||
with you. We'll survive. Wish you didn't operate that way. I wish
|
||
you luck.
|
||
|
||
Wynn Wagner. The complainers think he's anti IFNA. Wrong. He's
|
||
not pro or anti ANYTHING. He's no more in "your camp" than in
|
||
"theirs". He's writing a good BBS program. Rumor has it that it
|
||
costs a lot less than TBBS. And that unlike TBBS it doesn't need
|
||
SEAdog for a front end. Sounds interesting. Too bad the
|
||
"establishment" still wants to treat him like some kind of hobo
|
||
on the doorstep. Hard feelings are bound to result.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Here are a few more. I'm starting to feel better, so I'll be done
|
||
soon. If I forgot anybody or anything, that's probably for the
|
||
Fidonews Page 21 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
better. Don't feel slighted, if I feel the need later I'll get to
|
||
you!
|
||
|
||
Phil Becker. TBBS author. His orientation is somewhat more
|
||
commercial than, say, Wynn's. He and Thom have linked their
|
||
software in such a way that you can have 100% compatible (but not
|
||
100% identical) Echomail messages. Of course, what "not 100%
|
||
identical" means is that, for the sake of performance (Phil said
|
||
this is "10 times faster" - who would be fool enough to do it the
|
||
OTHER way?) you truncate the seconds, fold the subject field to
|
||
upper case, and truncate IT to 40 characters. Too bad KILLDUPS
|
||
doesn't like it. Grey Mist should have known better.
|
||
|
||
Tom Jennings. I owe him an apology. I think what you've been
|
||
seeing lately from him is, to quote another BBS developer I hold
|
||
in some esteem, "A social statement by the Author". I think
|
||
lavender hair and skateboarding is just what this Romper Room
|
||
calls for. Read some of the back issues of the IFNA echomail and
|
||
find a BETTER way to avoid high blood pressure! And we owe him a
|
||
major debt of gratitude. Kludge or no, Fido started something
|
||
that we've all found sufficiently worthwhile to be willing to put
|
||
up with a lot!
|
||
|
||
Mikey. I don't have enough disk space on my system to share my
|
||
feelings about him. For a while he served a useful purpose. Now I
|
||
want a message filter. Anybody have a piece of software I can run
|
||
to kill messages with the string "M I K E Y" in the "to", "from",
|
||
"subject", and "text" of a message? I don't even want to READ
|
||
that stuff any more.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Well, that gets a lot off my chest. I feel better. I know I could
|
||
just kill this now, you'd never read it, therefore never get
|
||
annoyed at me for writing them, but.... tough noogies. I can take
|
||
anything you guys dish out. I'm still here after 9 months of
|
||
constant connection to the IFNA echo. That should prove it.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 22 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
=================================================================
|
||
COLUMNS
|
||
=================================================================
|
||
|
||
Western Digital
|
||
Microsoft Word
|
||
Panasonic low cost printers
|
||
|
||
|
||
Well, I still haven't had much chance to look over a few
|
||
things lying around here although I have promised myself to get
|
||
to them "real soon now." I've made a few decisions on what this
|
||
column will cover in the future, mainly just about anything I
|
||
think is worthy of note. While I will be "reviewing" major (read
|
||
expensive) software, I'm going to try to cover reasonably priced
|
||
alternatives as well. If things keep piling up I'll talk to Thom
|
||
Henderson, the editor, and see what he thinks of a much larger
|
||
column for an issue or two. Hopefully things won't get that bad,
|
||
but I'll wait and see.
|
||
|
||
-- Western Digital gets good marks for support --
|
||
|
||
This week started off fairly well. I had been asked to take
|
||
a look at a hard drive a friend of mine had picked up. He hadn't
|
||
been able to format the drive, and was curious if it would even
|
||
work on his PC. Since he has the same controller I do, I figured
|
||
it would be no problem (I learned most of the tricks involved in
|
||
setting up hard drives a few months ago when I got mine).
|
||
Surprise! He walks in with a 76 1/2 megabyte hard drive, and
|
||
since we both use RLL controllers the first step was contacting
|
||
the manufacturer and finding out if the drive would work on an
|
||
RLL controller (many won't, although they will appear to work
|
||
fine initially). After confirming with CDC that the drive was
|
||
approved for use with an RLL controller, I got to undertake what
|
||
I thought would be a major task, finding out how to perform a low
|
||
level format on the drive (9 heads, 925 cylinders, not exactly a
|
||
run of the mill drive). My biggest problem was getting a phone
|
||
number for Western Digital's tech support, and all that took was
|
||
a phone call to a local friendly dealer. I was very surprised
|
||
when I called them, got through on the first call and was
|
||
immediately put through to a technician who was able to answer my
|
||
question. Ends result is my friend sending a check to Western
|
||
Digital for a new BIOS for his controller card (only $25), and
|
||
the new BIOS is supposed to support any type of drive! Western
|
||
Digital get high marks from me on support, even if their phone
|
||
number might be a little hard for a normal person to obtain.
|
||
|
||
-- Microsoft Word --
|
||
|
||
I've been spending the past few weeks trying out Microsoft
|
||
Word (list price is $450, and I've been using it to write these
|
||
columns), and think I may have finally switched word processors
|
||
(I had been using Wordstar). Before I go any further let me state
|
||
that word processors are a very personal thing, what I look for
|
||
and like in a word processor may be very different from your
|
||
expectations. I've learned this the hard way and wouldn't want
|
||
Fidonews Page 23 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
anybody else to make the same mistakes. My best advice is if
|
||
you're satisfied with what you're currently using, then stick
|
||
with it. These are my opinions on Word, other people will
|
||
probably have very different views.
|
||
|
||
That out of the way on to some of the things I like about
|
||
Word. The most important feature in any word processor I use is
|
||
that it should be able to print to a file without any more work
|
||
on my part, and the ASCII file should be in the same format as
|
||
the printed file. This means that if I'm using "full
|
||
justification" the ASCII file should be full justified (which is
|
||
how it works in Word). This was one of the things I couldn't
|
||
stand about Wordstar, I had to print to a file, strip off the
|
||
extra characters in the file (using an external program) and then
|
||
hand edit it in non-document mode. I still use Wordstar to go
|
||
over the final product before I mail it in, but otherwise it now
|
||
gathers dust on my shelf. Some of the other nice things about
|
||
Word is that I don't have to save the document when I do a
|
||
spelling check on the document, I can do it within the "main"
|
||
word processor itself. Another "feature" that I quickly came to
|
||
enjoy is the WYSIWYG display, in a few letters I've used bold and
|
||
italics and it's nice to actually see bold and italic. I haven't
|
||
had a need for the indexing, outlining, or style sheets; I have
|
||
tried them out just to see how it works. Word is also capable of
|
||
putting two subsequent paragraphs side by side. I used to have a
|
||
friend who worked at a radio station, he once asked me if I knew
|
||
of any word processors that could do this and I know have an
|
||
answer for him. His use for the side by side printing was for
|
||
some of the "scripts" used at the station, on one side would be
|
||
the speech part of the broadcast and on the other side there
|
||
would be the comments on sound effects and such. This might also
|
||
useful in theater and TV with notes to the cameraman, lighting,
|
||
and stage crews.
|
||
|
||
The printer support is exceptional, I just wish I had a
|
||
laser printer to see how well it works with one (support is
|
||
included for several different laser printers). Microsoft
|
||
provides a separate book on supported printers which goes over
|
||
any limitations of the printer (a good example is several laser
|
||
printers aren't capable of printing on the top line of a page),
|
||
what fonts and font sizes are available, and what special
|
||
features you can take advantage of from Word.
|
||
|
||
-- Panasonic low end printers --
|
||
|
||
While I'm on the subject of printers, it seems like a good
|
||
time to mention some of the current Panasonic printers. The
|
||
printers made by Panasonic tend to be reliable, inexpensive, and
|
||
include a lot of features not normally found in the same price
|
||
range. The two printers I'm going to mention here are the 1080i
|
||
(list price $319) and the 1091i (list price $419), both of which
|
||
I've had a chance to use on occasion. One of the nicest features
|
||
about these printers is the easily selected fonts on the front
|
||
panel. You don't have to remember what series of buttons to press
|
||
to get near letter quality, you just turn the printer offline and
|
||
change the switch. The 1080i has 3 fonts available from the front
|
||
Fidonews Page 24 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
panel (standard, compressed, NLQ) while the 1091i has four fonts
|
||
(one more, a bold Courier that's proportionally spaced). While
|
||
both printers only have a nine pin print head, they are both
|
||
capable of a fairly acceptable near letter quality (a few friends
|
||
of mine couldn't believe I used a dot matrix printer, although I
|
||
could tell the difference). Graphics wise, I tried running
|
||
Certificate Maker, Print Shop, and ProDesign II; each of these
|
||
programs worked with the program being told it was connected to
|
||
an Epson printer. The printers also have the capability of
|
||
printing the IBM graphics characters (mainly for lines used in
|
||
several programs), although it isn't the default setting.
|
||
Considering the capabilities of the printer against the price,
|
||
I'd say they were almost perfect for the user on a tight budget
|
||
or for someone in college.
|
||
|
||
-- HACK --
|
||
|
||
While I haven't had too much time to play it yet, HACK is
|
||
the best game I've come across this past week. I finally got
|
||
tired of seeing the conference on HACK on Usenet and not
|
||
understanding the messages, so I looked around and downloaded it
|
||
from a local board. It's is basically a Dungeons and Dragons type
|
||
game, while it uses "graphics," it does not require any graphics
|
||
card. Since it originated on the UNIX machines, it's capable of
|
||
being run on almost any computer (most terminals still don't have
|
||
the graphics capabilities of our PCs). The version I looked at
|
||
was 3.85, and had been customized for the PC, meaning that the
|
||
arrow keys worked. I don't think I will spend as much time on
|
||
HACK as I did on Leather Goddesses, but that's just from
|
||
frustration. If anyone out there can give me any good clues on
|
||
how to get down into the deeper parts of the dungeon, please let
|
||
me know. I've gotten to used to my adventures where things always
|
||
start out the same.
|
||
|
||
The best book this week is "Using Reflex" by Mick Renner
|
||
(list price $ 19.95 from QUE). It's helped explain a lot that
|
||
wasn't immediately clear to me from Borland's manual on Reflex. I
|
||
mentioned Reflex a few weeks ago, and am still playing around
|
||
(actually more real use than playing around) with it. Other
|
||
people around me are capable of understanding Reflex and while
|
||
they couldn't use my former database, they are capable of using
|
||
Reflex.
|
||
|
||
I once again welcome your comments, suggestions, and
|
||
opinions on anything I've written about or a specific piece of
|
||
software/hardware/whatever. Below is my US mail address along
|
||
with my Usenet and FidoNet addresses. I'll try and answer all
|
||
mail that I receive, and if I think you've asked a good question
|
||
(one that I think a lot of people have) I'll try and answer it at
|
||
the end of a future column. If you're a user of a BBS, please
|
||
mention to your sysop that netmail to me should be routed through
|
||
157/0, 157/1, or 157/502. Your sysop will understand what this
|
||
means, if you are a sysop just take note of the previous
|
||
sentence. If all goes well, I should be giving some first
|
||
impressions on some hot new software next week.
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 25 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
Dale Lovell
|
||
3266 Vezber Drive
|
||
Seven Hills, OH 44131
|
||
|
||
FidoNet: 157/504
|
||
Usenet: ..!ncoast!lovell
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 26 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
WHYDOESIT?
|
||
by Kerry Roach
|
||
OpusNODE 362/1 - Chattanooga, TN
|
||
|
||
This column will attempt to answer some of the questions that
|
||
have you scratching your head. If we don't know the answers,
|
||
hopefully we can find someone who can help.
|
||
|
||
Recently I purchased a copy board for my 1000. After following
|
||
the directions for installation explicitly, the 1000 failed to
|
||
boot with the copy board installed. The machine would operate
|
||
correctly if the hard disk controller card or the copy card was
|
||
removed. After removing the HD controller, the copy card worked
|
||
perfectly. Several calls to the copy card manufacturer failed to
|
||
produce results. Finally I called the HD manufacturer and got
|
||
results, although the solution is not the most convenient.
|
||
|
||
The 1000 has interrupts 2, 3, and 4 available on the I/O
|
||
channel while the "standard" I/O channel has interrupts 2, 3, 4,
|
||
5, 6, 7 available. The "standard" HD controller uses interrupt 5
|
||
to signal the microprocessor that it needs attention, but the
|
||
1000 uses interrupt 2 (This can be changed on the 1000SX). Since
|
||
the 1000 has only 3 interrupt lines available on the I/O bus, the
|
||
copy card also uses the same interrupt. On initialization, the
|
||
HD controller and the copy card both attempted to use the same
|
||
interrupt line and DMA channel. This cause the machine to "LOCK-
|
||
UP" since the devices both had the same priority. The problem
|
||
requires the removal of the HD controller anytime that the copy
|
||
card is to be installed and used.
|
||
|
||
Please direct any questions to me by use of THE LAST RESORT
|
||
INFORMATION SYSTEM. We'll do our best to get you an answer.
|
||
OpusNODE 362/1 (615) 892-7773 Chattanooga TN.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 27 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
=================================================================
|
||
NOTICES
|
||
=================================================================
|
||
|
||
The Interrupt Stack
|
||
|
||
|
||
27 Apr 1987
|
||
Start of the Semi-Annual DECUS (Digital Equipment Corp. Users
|
||
Society) symposium, to be held in Nashville, Tennessee.
|
||
|
||
17 May 1987
|
||
Metro-Fire Fido's Second Birthday BlowOut and Floppy Disk
|
||
Throwing Tournament! All Fido Sysops and Families Invited!
|
||
Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more information.
|
||
|
||
21 Aug 1987
|
||
Start of the Fourth International FidoNet Conference, to be
|
||
held at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, VA.
|
||
Details to follow.
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
|
||
April 2, 1987
|
||
Both Joe Turner (142/73) and Chris Michael (115/429)
|
||
have asked for the HPUSER echo area. Steve Butler (138/0)
|
||
is now offerring to moderate this for any and all users
|
||
who wish to connect in. Contact Tracy Graves (17/43 -
|
||
Region 17 ECHO GATEWAY) for connections.
|
||
|
||
--Steve Butler, SEAdog/OPUS 138/0
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
June 26 1987 Vietnam Veterans Convoy to the Wall begins!
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 28 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
|
||
ORDER FORM
|
||
|
||
Publications
|
||
|
||
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
|
||
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
|
||
|
||
International orders include $5.00 for
|
||
surface shipping or $15.00 for air shipping _____
|
||
|
||
SUBTOTAL _____
|
||
|
||
Mo. Residents add 5.725 % Sales tax _____
|
||
|
||
TOTAL _____
|
||
|
||
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
|
||
IFNA
|
||
P.O. Box 41143
|
||
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 USA
|
||
|
||
|
||
Name________________________________
|
||
Net/Node____/____
|
||
Company_____________________________
|
||
Address_____________________________
|
||
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
|
||
Voice Phone_________________________
|
||
|
||
|
||
Signature___________________________
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Fidonews Page 29 6 Apr 1987
|
||
|
||
|
||
__
|
||
The World's First / \
|
||
BBS Network /|oo \
|
||
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
|
||
_`@/_ \ _
|
||
| | \ \\
|
||
| (*) | \ ))
|
||
______ |__U__| / \//
|
||
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
|
||
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (jm)
|
||
|
||
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
|
||
|
||
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
|
||
pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the
|
||
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
|
||
increase worldwide communications. **
|
||
|
||
Name _________________________________ Date ________
|
||
Address ______________________________
|
||
City & State _________________________
|
||
Country_______________________________
|
||
Phone (Voice) ________________________
|
||
|
||
Net/Node Number ______________________
|
||
Board Name____________________________
|
||
Phone (Data) _________________________
|
||
Baud Rate Supported___________________
|
||
Board Restrictions____________________
|
||
Special Interests_____________________
|
||
______________________________________
|
||
______________________________________
|
||
Is there some area where you would be
|
||
willing to help out in FidoNet?_______
|
||
______________________________________
|
||
______________________________________
|
||
|
||
Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to:
|
||
|
||
International FidoNet Association
|
||
P. O. Box 41143
|
||
St Louis, Missouri 63141
|
||
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
|
||
in formation and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted
|
||
by the membership in January 1987. An Elections Committee has
|
||
been established to fill positions outlined in the By-Laws for
|
||
the Board of Directors. An IFNA Echomail Conference has been
|
||
established on FidoNet to assist the Elections Committee. We
|
||
welcome your input on this Conference.
|
||
|
||
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|
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