556 lines
25 KiB
Plaintext
556 lines
25 KiB
Plaintext
Volume 5, Number 45 7 November 1988
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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 Dale Lovell
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Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson
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Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
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Contributing Editors: Al Arango
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FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet
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Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to
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submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission
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standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from
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node 1:1/1.
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Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All
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rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for
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noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
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please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted
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at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141.
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Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of
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Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and
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are used with permission.
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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. We publish EVERYTHING
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received.
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Table of Contents
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1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
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MASS:Monthly Article Submission! ......................... 1
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AD&D by Modem ............................................ 3
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2. COLUMNS .................................................. 4
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Bodies Behind the BBS: Tom Hendricks .................... 4
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Let's YACK about Patience ................................ 6
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3. NOTICES .................................................. 7
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The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 7
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Election for Zone 1 Echomail Coordinator ................. 7
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Latest Software Versions ................................. 8
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 1 7 Nov 1988
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=================================================================
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ARTICLES
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=================================================================
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Jake Hargrove
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Fido 301/1
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High Mesa Ranger's
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Well folks here we are at the end of another month, and the
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beginning of a new one. For those of you who have not as yet
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made your plans. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and
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Christmas is not that far away. For those of you old enough to
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do it, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE.
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I for one have spent much time recuperating from a battle
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with Binkley. For some reason it does not want to run right.
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The little sample file runs ok, but once I go to add my own
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stuff, some where in the middle of things I get a Date Rollover
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problem. So far I have tried just about everything. But when
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all else fail the best thing to do is what I did. Convert back
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to OPUS. I have so far had no problems with OPUS and ConfMail,
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and I have also acquired a new message editor which works great
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up to and including me not having to log onto the BBS to read my
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mail.
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Net 301 has grown a bit in the last couple of weeks. The
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newest node 301/9 The Mountain Oracle is SysOp'ed by Paul Seymour
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and is in the latest node list. A few weeks older and hopefully
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included in the nodediff for this next friday is node 301/8,
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VOICE OF ALBUQUERQUE.
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There has been a lot of talk from the Houston Area about
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phone bills and changes by the phone company. I do have an
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article which was written by someone about this which may be
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included in the Fido News. It is very interesting.
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With all of this going on, I have even had time to work a
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little more on the Book I am in the process of writing. Am up to
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page 10 of chapter 4. Have also been involved with a new Echo
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Mail area. What is new? This area is Hosted and Moderated by
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node 304/1, Linda Murphy. It is called ET, and is about almost
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anything concerning ExtraTerrestial happenings. For guidelines
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and connection you can contact her for the specifics. Or if you
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would like you may connect with me here at 301/1 and I will pass
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it on to you. To my knowledge she has no intention of putting it
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on the Backbone as of yet.
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An I know this is a little early but What You Want for
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Christmas? I want:
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9600 Baud modem.
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New computer and monitor.
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OPUS 1.1
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 2 7 Nov 1988
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Ok nuff said, if you are reading this, then I got it sent out ok
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and it has been included in the Gazette.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 3 7 Nov 1988
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Revis Smith
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1:120/110
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Playing Dungeons and Dragons by Modem
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First you have to roll a chracter. You can either do
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this by rolling 3 (6) sided dice, for each of 7
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different attributes, or by using a program called
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CHARGEN3.ARC. This file is available for file request
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on my system. CHARGEN3 was written by my friend Barron
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Featherston, and was designed to roll up a character
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for the player.
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Once this is done the player submits his character to
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the dungeon master for approval, and waits to be
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introduced into the game.
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If the game you are starting is new the dungeon master
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writes an introduction to his story, and then you ask
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the characters to give a backround history of
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themselves. This is so that they can place
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themselves in the world that you have created.
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In my case this World is "Sanctum", your introduction
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goes into a special file area along with character
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histories. After this is all done you give chracters a
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hint of what their after, and really start plot
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development.
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Then each of the characters post what he or she is
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going to do, usually they a elect leader first. This
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is done on a special board, on my system the board is
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called the Adventure Section.
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When all the characters have posted and a general
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agreement on a course of action has been reached, the
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DM writes a file called a review, and tells the players
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what happened. This file he puts up for download, so
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everybody can keep up with the story of what players
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are doing.
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If a Player wants to do anything he doesn't want the
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others to know about he sends DM private mail.
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I use the following books to help me run my adventures:
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Unearthed Arcana, Dungeoner's guide, and Wilderness
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Guide. As mapping goes The DM makes an ASCII map, and
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puts it up for download.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 4 7 Nov 1988
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=================================================================
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COLUMNS
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=================================================================
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Steve Bonine
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115/777
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An Introduction of Tom Hendricks
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FTSC Certification Committee
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Last week we got a glimpse of Rick Moore, the new head of the
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FidoNet Technical Standards Committee. This week we'll peak at
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Tom Hendricks (261/662) who has been picked to head up the
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certification process.
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Certification is the formal testing of software to determine if
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it does what it is supposed to. In this case, the certification
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is to insure that software which claims to be "FidoNet compat-
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ible" does, indeed, conform to all of the applicable specifica-
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tions. This is a process which has never really been formally
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addressed, and the IFNA Board of Directors saw it as a priority
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when the issue was raised at FidoCon. Tom will have the respon-
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sibility for doing the formal testing. Of course, before he can
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do that, the exact testing procedure must be determined.
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But the purpose of this column is to discuss the PEOPLE, not for
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me to editorialize on the wonders of FidoNet technology, so let's
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move to an introduction of Tom.
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In his "real job", Tom is an analyst for the Federal government,
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and spends most of his time working on computer networking
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problems, connecting different flavors of computers together.
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That would certainly seem to provide a bit of background for his
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FidoNet carreer. Tom runs his own small firm on the side,
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selling systems to low-end businesses and high-end techies.
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Tom somehow finds time for several hobbies in addition to the
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work. He's a fan of programming languages, with C and Modula-2
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being his favorites at this moment. He has taught classes in
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assembly language. Other hobbies include photography and pets,
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including exotic birds and tropical fish. In fact, as Tom was
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giving me the information for this article, he was the excited
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"daddy" of some newly-hatched chicks.
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Tom's bulletin-board experience began with a homebuilt modem that
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he used with an ASR-33 teletype terminal to access the school's
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mainframe while in college. He got his first commercial modem in
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1981 and, after playing around on CompuServe and his brother's
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CP/M BBS, started one of the first systems in the Baltimore area
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in 1985. His board has been up continiously since, moving from
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RBBS-PC to Colossus, to COLLIE, and via Fido to Opus.
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Tom joined FidoNet when it was about 1,000 nodes strong, in net
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109 which then was Metro DC and Maryland. Kurt Reisler was the
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NC and Thom Henderson was the RC. Later a new Baltimore net was
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 5 7 Nov 1988
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formed (net 261).
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The name of Tom's system, Avi-Technic, reflects his combined
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interests of birds and computers. Sounds to me like ideal
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background for the certification job; he'll meet some interesting
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birds in that assignment! Tom's current FidoNet interests in
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addition to the FTSC work include the HST echo (which he co-
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founded with his brother) and coordinating the software
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distribution system. He is an IFNA member, on the Membership
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Services committee, and is Bob Rudolph's alternate for the IFNA
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Board.
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I hope you've enjoyed this peek at Tom. If there is someone you
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would like to know more about, send me netmail (115/777) and I'll
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see if I have any luck digging up dirt on them. Or if you are
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Famous in FidoNet, send me your bio!
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 6 7 Nov 1988
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YACK
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Yet Another Complicated Komment
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by Steven K. Hoskin
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( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 )
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Episode 15: Patience
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Boy, sleep really does get away from you after awhile if you
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don't watch it. I spent a great deal of time a few weeks ago,
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for a few weeks, avoiding sleep for one reason (excuse?) or
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another. Staying obnoxious hours at work, working on projects
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around the house, late nights drinking coffee at Denny's...what
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ever it took. It seemed I was bound and determined to not get
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any sleep.
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It started to show. My responses to the users on the local area
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of the message section were getting short, terse, even quippy.
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New word? Maybe. Accurate, though.
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Then it got worse. The local in-town EchoMail conferences seemed
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to be teeming with problems that simply demanded immediate
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attention. Pseudonyms, accidental misspellings...the list goes
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on.
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The it hit its worst stage. The local Netwide SysOp EchoMail
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conference. Problems came up with our Regional EchoMail
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Coordinator and the Net EchoMail Coordinator position was
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changing hands and Nodes were going down and one wasn't tossing a
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strictly SysOp area from the NetMail area, leaving home phone
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numbers available for viewing and delays in EchoMail and FidoNews
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got me worried. I must've entered a boatload of messages asking
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if there was a problem with routing and could I do anything to
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help (as if I was even coherent enough to BE of any help), and
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did we need to reorganize things and...
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My fellow SysOps have a great deal of patience. Obviously, I'm
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still here. I look back on it and wonder how I even had the
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presence of mind to type. I was one tired puppy. And I lost my
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patience.
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FidoNet is an experiment in communication. Communication
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requires patience. None of us perfectly express our views every
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time we type a message. It can take several messages to get the
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concepts we dream up across to others. Several back-and-forth
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type of queries are usually required. In short, communication
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can't be a one-shot your way, one-shot my way type of thing.
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It's got to be a lot of sharing of ideas. In short, you can't
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have communication without patience. I hope I keep it this time.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 7 7 Nov 1988
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=================================================================
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NOTICES
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=================================================================
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The Interrupt Stack
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23 Nov 1988
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25th Anniversary of "Dr. Who" - and still going strong
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24 Aug 1989
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Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
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5 Oct 1989
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20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
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If you have something which you would like to see on this
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calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Election for New Zone 1 Echomail Coordinator
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David Dodell, 1:1/0
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As most of you know, Butch Walker has resigned as Zone 1 Echomail
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Coordinator.
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It is Butch's desire to have an election for the new Z1EC, and I
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will be assisting by conducting those elections.
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The plan is as follows:
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(1)
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Applications for the position need to reach my system by Monday,
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November 14th. Any applications for the position should include
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a statement from the candidate. This statement can contain
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anything the candidate wishes, but I recommend that the candidate
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express why he/she would be good for the position, why he/she
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should be voted to the position, and/or his/her goals for
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echomail. This statement should be no longer then 80 x 24 (i.e.
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one screen).
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(2)
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On the 14th of November, I will mail to the REC a copy of all of
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the candidate statements. These should be disseminated to the
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NEC's in your region.
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(3)
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Voting will be done by the REC/NEC structure only. It will be
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the responsibility of all NEC to get their votes into the REC by
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November 30th. The REC's will then get the sub-totals for their
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Regions into me by December 4th.
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 8 7 Nov 1988
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Announcment and notification of the new Z1EC will be done on
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December 5th.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Latest Software Versions
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BBS Systems Node List Other
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& Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
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|
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Dutchie 2.90b EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.30*
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Fido 12h MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 1.1
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Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00
|
||
SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86 EchoMail 1.31
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TBBS 2.0M XlaxNode 2.22 MGM 1.1
|
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BinkleyTerm 2.00 XlaxDiff 2.22 TPB Editor 1.21*
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QuickBBS 2.03 ParseList 1.20 TCOMMail 1.1*
|
||
TPBoard 4.2* TMail 8810
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TComm/TCommNet 3.2*
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||
Lynx 1.10*
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||
D'Bridge 1.10
|
||
FrontDoor 2.0
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* Recently changed
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Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
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||
reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
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all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 9 7 Nov 1988
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OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
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Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board
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Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President
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Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President
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Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
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David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary
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Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer
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||
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IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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||
|
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DIVISION AT-LARGE
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||
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10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210
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11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106
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12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 1:147/1
|
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13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777
|
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14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5
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||
15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1
|
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16 Vince Perriello 1:141/491 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628
|
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17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871
|
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18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24
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19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18
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2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 10 7 Nov 1988
|
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|
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|
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__
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||
The World's First / \
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||
BBS Network /|oo \
|
||
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
|
||
_`@/_ \ _
|
||
| | \ \\
|
||
| (*) | \ ))
|
||
______ |__U__| / \//
|
||
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
|
||
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
|
||
|
||
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
|
||
|
||
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
|
||
pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the
|
||
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
|
||
increase worldwide communications.
|
||
|
||
Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________
|
||
Address _________________________________________________________
|
||
City ____________________________________________________________
|
||
State ________________________________ Zip _____________________
|
||
Country _________________________________________________________
|
||
Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
|
||
Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
|
||
|
||
Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________
|
||
BBS Name ________________________________________________________
|
||
BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________
|
||
Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________
|
||
Board Restrictions ______________________________________________
|
||
|
||
Your Special Interests __________________________________________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
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||
Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
|
||
US Funds to:
|
||
International FidoNet Association
|
||
PO Box 41143
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||
St Louis, Missouri 63141
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USA
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||
|
||
Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
|
||
insure the future of FidoNet.
|
||
|
||
Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
|
||
and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
|
||
membership in January 1987. The second elected Board of Directors
|
||
was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
|
||
established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
|
||
input to this Conference.
|
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|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 5-45 Page 11 7 Nov 1988
|
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|
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|
||
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
|
||
ORDER FORM
|
||
|
||
Publications
|
||
|
||
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
|
||
1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing
|
||
them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee
|
||
Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each
|
||
publication, but we can make no written guarantees.
|
||
|
||
Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986
|
||
|
||
IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____
|
||
IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____
|
||
IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____
|
||
|
||
SUBTOTAL _____
|
||
|
||
IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers
|
||
|
||
System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____
|
||
SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987
|
||
ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member
|
||
|
||
Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____
|
||
Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987
|
||
ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member
|
||
|
||
International orders include $10.00 for
|
||
surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____
|
||
|
||
SUBTOTAL _____
|
||
|
||
MO. Residents add 5.725% Sales Tax _____
|
||
|
||
TOTAL _____
|
||
|
||
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS:
|
||
International FidoNet Association
|
||
PO Box 41143
|
||
St Louis, Mo. 63141
|
||
USA
|
||
|
||
Name________________________________
|
||
Zone:Net/Node____:____/____
|
||
Company_____________________________
|
||
Address_____________________________
|
||
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
|
||
Voice Phone_________________________
|
||
|
||
|
||
Signature___________________________
|
||
|
||
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