415 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
415 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
Volume 6, Number 10 6 March 1989
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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. 1:1/1 is available for network mail between NMH-1
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hour to NMH+1 hour. At all other times, netmail is not accepted
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although submissions can be uploaded.
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Copyright 1989 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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SEA Letter: Kitten 2.00 .................................. 1
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2. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 6
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Latest Software Versions ................................. 6
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3. NOTICES .................................................. 7
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The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 7
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FidoNews 6-10 Page 1 6 Mar 1989
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=================================================================
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ARTICLES
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=================================================================
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What's Happening at SEA?
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Just what the world needs -- another BBS program! Well, since
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everyone else has written one, why not us?
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Some of you may already be familiar with Kitten 1.00 -- the
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world's tiniest BBS program. Kitten didn't do much; no message
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bases, no uploads, no games, nothing but a bulletin and a short
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list of files for download. But if that was all you needed, then
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Kitten was the best choice because she was so easy to set up.
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In version 2.00 Kitten has grown up a bit. She can still be the
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simple, unassuming system she was before, and when she is she's
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just as easy to set up as ever.
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But if you tell her to, Kitten can grow into a real LION!
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o Unlimited message bases.
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o Five access levels and up to sixteen access control flags.
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o An unlimited number of menus -- all fully definable by you.
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o "Hacker control" from the simple to the sublime -- limited
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only by your own imagination.
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o Conditional menus, allowing menu flexibility unheard of in a
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BBS program.
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o The ability to run "outside" programs with full redirection
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(see what the user sees, and you can type too) and a built-in
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watchdog for carrier AND for session time limit.
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o File upload/download ability to an unlimited number of file
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areas, with file access under your control at all times.
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To see a sample of just how WILD a Kitten can get, check out
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Irene & Leo's Funhouse at (201) 473-5371 (outside of business
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hours only, please).
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Kitten 2.00 comes complete with copious documentation and two
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sample configurations to get you started. Whether your needs are
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simple or incredible, you owe it to yourself to take a look at
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Kitten!
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Files mentioned this week:
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KITTEN.ARC The Kitten BBS package.
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FidoNews 6-10 Page 2 6 Mar 1989
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KITTEN.ARC may be downloaded from our technical support bulletin
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board at (201) 473-1991, or may be file-requested from either
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520/1015@AlterNet or 1:107/1015@FidoNet.
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Next week: USNO
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-10 Page 3 6 Mar 1989
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Nodelist Flags and Brownshirts
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Evolution, Growth, and Political Structures
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In any society, there is a continual problem of the rules and
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rulemakers not always being able to keep up with the technologies
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that drive the society. FidoNet is no exception, and the
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nodelist flags is a golden example of this.
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The defacto standard for nodelist flags has been considerably
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different than the written standards for quite some time.
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Recently, the FTSC has attempted to bring them closer to parity
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in the form of a new FTS-0005.
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Threatened Actions By A Now-ExRC
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When I was an RC, one of the things that irked me in a big way
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was a threat by another RC to drop any nodes whose flags did not
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correspond to the written spec. That RC commissioned a program
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that would seek and comment out any nodes not in compliance.
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I did not, and do not, see why a node that has flags that don't
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match a written spec should be dropped from the nodelist, except
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in those cases where it clearly indicates bad faith on the part
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of the sysop. For instance, saying CM when you are not. But to
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be dropped because you have AKA:xxxx setting seems more than a
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little bogus to me. That's a problem between an RC and an NC,
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since it's the NC who prepares the entries, not the sysop. If
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totally illegal values are coming in a given NC's segment, you
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fire the creator of the segment, not the nodes being
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ill-represented.
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This is the kind of thing that scares me most about FidoNet - we
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seem to have two extremes for rules - either they don't apply at
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all, or we are going to use them as excuses for ax grinding.
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User Flags
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Primary Intent On My Part: To Give Lee Kemp A Place For Keys
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In direct recognition of the fact that our political structures
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in FidoNet don't work well or efficiently, I pressed to have the
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user flags added to the FTSC spec. The intent of these flags was
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to provide a place for people to try new things out in the
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nodelist without rigamarole from the coordinator structure. To
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legally provide for a mechanism for the organic growth that is
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clearly needed - a place where ideas can be tried, and either
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flourish, die, or be incorporated into some idea, without some
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hardass coordinator imposing his world view on what is supposed
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to be an egalitarian network.
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My specific, short term intent was to provide Lee Kemp with a
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place to store PKSCrypt keys in his nodelist entry. Later in
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this article, you'll see how.
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FidoNews 6-10 Page 4 6 Mar 1989
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Growing Out of The User Realm
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Implicit in this is the assumption that some user flags will
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migrate to the more standard flags. For instance, once everyone
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agreed on some mechanism for encoding a signature key (from
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attempts in the user flags), the mechanism might be standardized
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by the FTSC, and moved into the "standard" flags area.
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Coordinator Actions
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In Hindsight, The Coordinator Flags Were Suggested
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As an afterthought, I suggested that a second, parallel set of
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flags be created, called Coordinator flags. This was suggested
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because the FTSC nodelist specification serves a number of
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networks. The coordinator flags would allow a particular local
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political structure to have it's own set of flags implemented in
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such a way that any robust, general purpose nodelist processor
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would not barf, while still keeping the "garden" of the user
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flags free from intervention.
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The uses that came to mind for this related to things like
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identifying EchoMail hubs, SDS nodes, etc.
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These flags could be added ONLY with the approval of the given
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coordinator structure, where in the case of the user flags, the
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coordinator structure would have little, if any, say over.
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As Usual, Coordinators Usurping The Users of the Network
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But as it stands, the coordinators of FidoNet have decided to
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take it upon themselves to use and control the User flags, while
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the FTSC has ignored the coordinator flags. As usual, you and I
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are left at the mercy of a bunch of people who didn't understand
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the intent to begin with.
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Par for the course. I guess I should have expected this. For
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once, let's get them to do it right. Tell your NC you want to
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use your User Flags for just that - user flags, and if the
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coordinators want some flags to control, let them get their own.
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For now, just ask your NC for the USER_NOT_*C_FLAG! flag. If you
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have an AKA or PN flag, have them make it an UAKA or UPN flag.
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That's what they were created for. You. Not them. If he tells
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you he can't, ask him when the coordinators are going to live by
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the rules they've written rather than the ones they make up along
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the way?
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JonesNose Flags
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I have submitted a request to my NC for the following flags:
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UPN5555,PK2E5F9D0D0999
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FidoNews 6-10 Page 5 6 Mar 1989
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PN5555 means I use private net 5555.
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The latter is a 7 digit PKSCrypt key set, packed as two, six
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digit hexadecimal values. (If someone would be kind enough to
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netmail me a copy of what they think the key would look like, I'd
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be much obliged.)
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Harry Lee
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1:321/202@FidoNet
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-10 Page 6 6 Mar 1989
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=================================================================
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LATEST VERSIONS
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=================================================================
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Latest Software Versions
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Bulletin Board Software
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Name Version Name Version Name Version
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Fido 12K* Opus 1.03b TBBS 2.1
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QuickBBS 2.03 TPBoard 5.0 TComm/TCommNet 3.2
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Lynx 1.22 Phoenix 1.3 RBBS 1.71D
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Network Node List Other
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Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
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Dutchie 2.90C* EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.32
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SEAdog 4.50* MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 2.0*
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BinkleyTerm 2.00 Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00
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D'Bridge 1.10 XlatList 2.90* TPB Editor 1.21
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FrontDoor 2.0 XlaxNode 2.32* TCOMMail 2.0
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PRENM 1.40 XlaxDiff 2.32* TMail 8901*
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ParseList 1.30 UFGATE 1.02*
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GROUP 2.04*
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EMM 1.40
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MSGED 1.96
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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 6-10 Page 7 6 Mar 1989
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=================================================================
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NOTICES
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=================================================================
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The Interrupt Stack
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8 May 1989
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Digital Equipment Corporations User Society (DECUS) will be
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holding its semi-annual symposium in Atlanta, GA. Runs
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through May 12. As usual sysop's will get together and chat.
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19 May 1989
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Start of EuroCon III at Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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24 Aug 1989
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Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
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24 Aug 1989
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FidoCon '89 starts at the Holiday Inn in San Jose,
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California. Trade show, seminars, etc. Contact 1/89
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for info.
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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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FidoNews 6-10 Page 8 6 Mar 1989
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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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IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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DIVISION AT-LARGE
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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 3:711/403 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 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 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 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 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 6-10 Page 9 6 Mar 1989
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__
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The World's First / \
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BBS Network /|oo \
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* FidoNet * (_| /_)
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_`@/_ \ _
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| | \ \\
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| (*) | \ ))
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______ |__U__| / \//
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/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
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(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
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Membership for the International FidoNet Association
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Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
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pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the
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international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
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increase worldwide communications.
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Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________
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Address _________________________________________________________
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City ____________________________________________________________
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State ________________________________ Zip _____________________
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Country _________________________________________________________
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Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
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Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
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Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________
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BBS Name ________________________________________________________
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BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________
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Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________
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Board Restrictions ______________________________________________
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Your Special Interests __________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________
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In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________
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_________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________
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Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
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US Funds to:
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International FidoNet Association
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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
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insure the future of FidoNet.
|
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Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
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and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
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membership in January 1987. The second elected Board of Directors
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was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
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established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
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input to this Conference.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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