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F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 30 (27 July 1992)
The newsletter of the |
FidoNet BBS community | Published by:
_ |
/ \ | "FidoNews" BBS
/|oo \ | (415)-863-2739
(_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1
_`@/_ \ _ | Internet:
| | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
| (*) | \ )) |
|__U__| / \// | Editors:
_//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings
(_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar
(jm) |
|
| Newspapers should have no friends.
| -- JOSEPH PULITZER
----------------------------+---------------------------------------
Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews.
Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free!
Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00US
For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ..................................................... 1
Editorial: The daily grind .................................... 1
2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 3
FidoCon '92 September 4-6 Dallas, TX .......................... 3
Fidosnooze back-issues ........................................ 5
SEAmail version 1.10 revision G ............................... 6
SCI&TECH -- On the Backbone! .................................. 7
New Fitness Echo .............................................. 8
OPENDOORS Programming Echo! ................................... 8
This New Echo, STDSN - What Is It? ............................ 9
3. LATEST VERSIONS ............................................... 11
Software Versions List ........................................ 11
4. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 12
FidoNews 9-30 Page 1 27 Jul 1992
======================================================================
EDITORIAL
======================================================================
Editorial: The daily grind
by Tom Jennings (1:1/1)
JUST TO KEEP YOU THINKING AND AWAKE --
I have just changed the compression method used to generate FidoNews
once again. The current method is called GARGLE, and only I have a copy.
It's really the best in the world, so you shouldn't mind.
Seriously, it has been changed back to LHARC. In early June I
switched to ZIP from LHARC because my LHARC program failed miserably
when used with CTTY COM2, which I needed to remotely generate FidoNews
while I was in Seattle.
Everyone got mad at me then. Now that you're used to ZIP, I've changed
back to LHARC. Now you can get mad at me *again*. There was a lot less
griping than the last time I pulled this a year ago (for completely
different and less-substantial reasons).
Let's hope that a revision of LHARC allowing CTTY console redirection
comes out before I have to do this all over again...
* * * * *
Last week I mentioned something that I thought would generate a
little bit of friction, the idea that FidoNet "regions" are getting a
little too big. That the number of regions should increase, so that
each becomes much smaller.
Imagine how surprised I was when I received one response. And a
rational one at that, dammit. Have I lost my edge?
I was serious though. 1000 nodes in a region is crazy. How can you
expect friendly, hassle-free interactions when the RC has to deal with
1000 nodes?!
I don't want FidoNews to look like PERSONAL DATA COMM MICRO MAGAZINE
(pick your favorite generic computer magazine) that resorts to
repetitive "our annual printer review" saying the same things about
the same old products, year after year.
Here at FidoNews, when the editor is bored, the editorials are boring.
Honesty for a change! And for content, it randomly depends on what
"you the reader" sends in.
FidoNews 9-30 Page 2 27 Jul 1992
This issue is informative, but not really "hot". It seems the
argumentative nature of FidoNet people drops off in the summer
(really). It's only when we sit around the terminal (appropriate
word...) for long enough to make us lose our sense(s) of
perspective(s) that we let Sysop A's problems with Sysop B turn into a
"policy war" or something. It is probably a good sign, we get out
during the warm months (of course *everyone* lives well North of the
equator in FidoLand, right?)
I'll shut up now.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-30 Page 3 27 Jul 1992
======================================================================
ARTICLES
======================================================================
FidoCon '92 "Gateway Networking"
September 4-6 Summit Hotel
Dallas, Texas
FidoCon '92 is now just around the corner. If you get your
registration form mailed before the end of the month, you'll save $10
over the late registration price.
The FIDOCON92 conference should be making its way along the FidoNet
echomail backbone now. If it's not available in your area, ask your
REC about it.
We have reserved one of our two large conference rooms for vendor
displays, and are still actively soliciting vendors to show their
wares, as well as provide some of our door prizes.
The schedule is beginning to get firmed up. We hope to have
discussions by the major phone service providers about new technology,
Caller*ID, and how these changes relate to our use of the phone system.
We're working on getting the major modem vendors in attendance, where
they can show their new stuff, as well as discuss the V.32, V.42, and
new V.fast standards. There will be discussions about echomail cost
sharing, as well as talks on the operation of some of the zone and
network gateways. And we should have lots of demonstrations of network
software, OS/2 V2.0, Windows/NT, etc.
Vendor space is available for $200 for a 10'x10' area for both days.
Hospitality suites are also available for $100 plus $49 for each of up
to three attached sleeping rooms. These are per night charges.
If you've got an idea for a discussion session, or know of a vendor
that might be interested in attending, let us hear from you as soon as
possible.
Oh, and don't forget to bring your swimming suit for the net -vs- net
water volleyball tournament!
Registration Form
-------------------------------------------------------------
Price schedule
--------------
Single occupancy for 2 nights, airport
transportation, conference with breaks,
lunch each day, Saturday banquet ..................... $182.80
FidoNews 9-30 Page 4 27 Jul 1992
Double occupancy for 2 nights, airport
transportation, conference with breaks,
lunch each day, Saturday banquet ..................... $254.80
2 Double Beds King-size Bed
No sleeping room, conference with breaks,
lunch each day, Saturday banquet ...................... $74.00
Thursday night early arrival .......................... $49.00
Conference and breaks only ............................ $20.00
Saturday banquet ...................................... $30.00
Credit Card fee ....................................... $10.00
Registration postmarked after July 31 ................. $10.00
Official FidoCon '92 T-Shirt .......................... $12.00*
At the door ...................................... $15.00
Size: S M L XL
Official FidoCon '92 Mug .............................. $8.00*
At the door ...................................... $10.00
Official FidoCon '92 Cap ............................... $6.00*
At the door ...................................... $7.00
Galleria Mall Day Bus Trip ............................. $1.00
-------------------------------------------------------------
Name:
Network address:
Mailing address:
Voice phone number:
Please circle the items from the above list that you desire, and
indicate quantity if applicable.
If you wish to split the cost of a double occupancy room and want us to
find you a roommate:
FidoNews 9-30 Page 5 27 Jul 1992
You must pay the full price for a single occupancy room at the time
you register. We will refund the difference at the conference if we
are able to find you a match. Please indicate if you have any
preferences about your roommate (i.e. smoking/non-smoking).
If you will be sharing a double occupancy room, please give us the
name of the other person:
Would you like a room with a modular phone jack?
Do you require any special (i.e. wheelchair) facilities?
Do you desire information about rental cars?
What date/time do you plan to arrive in Dallas?
What date/time do you plan to leave?
* If you're not planning to come to the conference, souvenirs may be
shipped to you if you include appropriate shipping and handling
charges. Any surplus will be refunded. However, these souvenirs will
be available only in limited quantity, and people showing up to claim
them in person will have first choice. If you miss out, we will refund
your money.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Please make your check or money order out to "FidoCon 92". Note the
July 31st deadline and associated late charge above. If you wish to
pay by credit card, please contact 1:1/92 for more information. Mail
your payment to:
FidoCon '92
PO Box 550542
Dallas, TX 75355-0542
For more information, send netmail to Ron Bemis (1:1/92) or Henry
Clark (1:124/6119), or call John Summers at the FidoCon '92 Hotline
1-800-899-3585.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By Joe Jared of 1:125/1212 (Formerly 103/200)
Recently with the assistance of 102/138 I have obtained almost all of
the Fidonews articles to date. Part of this was out of boredom, but
there's also a need to keep the history of Fidonet alive, and the best
historical document of Fidonet I've seen to date is Fidonews itself.
Sure there's plenty of ranting and raving, and most of the motivators in
fidonet's growth have flown the coop, but by reading these articles, one
can see how as the net grew, growing pains and would be power mongers
would try to push the will of the net onto lesser beings, and how
fidonet has grown into the gigantic political and technical nightmare
that it is. Anyway, enough rambling. For request purposes, the
articles prior to 1992 are available by file request using the following
numbering sequence or by name if you want specific files.
FidoNews 9-30 Page 6 27 Jul 1992
FNews_## where ## is the year's worth of fidonews. There are a few
stray areas that I'm looking for to complete the set, and if anyone has
the missing pieces or an explaination as to the gaps, either would be
appreciated.
Year 1: This is all I have. FNEWS_84.ARJ
FNEWS103.ARJ Fidonews Vol. 1, No. 03
FNEWS104.ARJ Fidonews Vol. 1, No. 04
FNEWS105.ARJ Fidonews Vol. 1, No. 05
Year 2: Were there any issues prior to Vol 2. No. 10?
FNEWS210.ARJ Fidonews Vol. 2, No. 10
----------------------------------------------------------------------
System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
520/519@AlterNet 1:107/519@Fidonet
SEAmail 1.10
Revision G
09 July 1992
Revision G to SEAmail version 1.10 has been released, and incorporates the
following changes:
* A bug was fixed that caused delivered processes to interfere with file
requests in the same session.
* KITTEN now keeps track of how many messages a caller reads or enters.
This information can be viewed in the REVIEW command, and is accessible
via the following system macros:
Total Today
===== =====
Messages read %MSGSREAD% %MSGSREADTDY%
Messages written %MSGSWROTE% %MSGSWROTETDY%
* MAIL now prohibits zero-level users from adding echomail or supergroup
folders, or from using crash priority or requesting return receipts.
* The F10 "<R>ead - <S>elect message" display in MAIL now highlights the
subject text of any message that is marked crash priority.
* RTS was not being properly managed in some situations. This should now
be fixed.
* The file transfer status box in DIAL and KITTEN now has a somewhat more
FidoNews 9-30 Page 7 27 Jul 1992
informative title.
* It was detected that the WAZOO session handler was not sending an extra
TSYNC when processing a ".REQ" file during a DietIFNA session where no
mail was being picked up. This has been fixed.
* The TELL program was always routing as per window S, regardless of what
routing window is in force at the moment. This has been fixed.
* Two new routing directives, DEFAULT and MATCH, have been added. See
the updated ROUTE.DOC for details.
* A bug was discovered that could cause GRPIN to hang under certain
circumstances when importing messages into an echomail folder. This
has now been fixed.
Those with SEAmail 1.10 revision F for MS-DOS can upgrade to revision G by
going to their SEAmail directory and giving the command:
upgrade sm110g
Those with the OS/2 version should give the command:
upgrade sm110gp
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Science & Technology Echo Is On The Backbone
David Bloomberg, 1:233/12
"Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for
knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by
examination of the best available evidence and always subject to
correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence." -- James
Randi
This definition probably best describes the thoughts and ideals of the
moderators of the SCI&TECH echo.
Some other so-called "science" echos have been "invaded" by psuedo-
science and religion posing as science. Those who are actually
interested in discussing the amazing changes in science and technology
that are occurring all around us are being relegated to the background
in those echos. It seems there are more messages about transcendental
meditation and religion than any actual SCIENCE!
Well, we have a solution. It's the SCI&TECH echo.
You may recall an article about SCI&TECH here in the FidoNews a few
months ago. Since then, we have become a backbone echo. Anybody who is
interested should be able to obtain a feed through their normal backbone
sources. We already span the coasts of the US! This means that even more
people who are interested in discussing science and technology can now
participate.
FidoNews 9-30 Page 8 27 Jul 1992
From scientists to students, if you have a question, if you'd like to
share your knowledge, if you want to discuss the latest findings in
scientific journals or the popular press, or if you just want to talk to
others with similar interests, without all the "noise" you may find
elsewhere, SCI&TECH is the place for you.
If you're interested, just call up your regular backbone source!
-- David Bloomberg, Hector Mandel, Melissa Woo, and Eric Larson
----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Mike Griffin, 1:106/5999
Fitness Echo
After a few trips to the doctor and discovering that the only reason
I was having back problems was due to the fact I didn't exercise enough,
I decided to start working out again. I soon was so involved with
pumping iron, I started feeling guilty when I didn't make a daily
trip to the gym. I wanted an Echo that dealt with all aspects of
physical fitness, but none were available. So I have decided FIDO
needs to have an echo dedicated to the health and fitness of the
human body.
The "FITNESS" echo is currently available locally in the NET 106 area.
Some topics of the echo are.. aerobics, nutrition, weight control,
weight lifting, body building, running, biking, heart fitness, sports
medicine and home exercise just to name a few. We hope to spread the
echo to the national backbone soon.
If you would like to receive the FITNESS echo, please send netmail
to your NEC or ZEC requesting the "FITNESS" echo. If you can't wait
for it to go nationally, please netmail me at 1:106/5999@Fidonet
and I will be happy to arrange distribution.
The "FITNESS" echo is now available here locally to about 10 sites and
we are hoping to expand to the national backbone soon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Scott Burkett
1:3613/12@fidonet
OPENDOORS ECHO NOW AVAILABLE!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
OPENDOORS is an internationally distributed echo designed for
discussion of BBS door/utility programming, and in particular,
Brian Pirie's OpenDoors C Library!
FidoNews 9-30 Page 9 27 Jul 1992
The OpenDoors door programming toolkit and BBS interface package is
used by Turbo C(++) / Borland C++ programmers, to write doors and
utilities that are compatible with RA, Maximus, QuickBBS and many
other BBS systems.
The OPENDOORS Echo was created by a group of dedicated BBS door and
utility programmers and designers, in order to promote discussions on
BBS utility programming techniques, tasks, standards, and trends.
This echo is not just for BBS door authors! Discussion of
practically any aspect of BBS programming is encouraged. Brian
Pirie, the author of OpenDoors is available for tech support, as
are his beta-testers.
The echo is not currently on the FidoNet backbone, but a feed is
available from the following nodes:
Scott Burkett 1:3613/12 9600v.32 Columbus, GA
Mike Gurski 1:261/1062 2400 Baltimore, MD
Brian Pirie 1:243/8 2400 Ottawa, Ontario
Jim Imrie 2:259/14 9600v.32 Glenrothes, Scotland
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A New Star Trek Echo - STDSN
By Ray Brown, Moderator
SysOp, SpacePort Miami, 1:135/70
Greetings and salutations, fellow Trekkers/Trekkies!
I'd like to announce a new echo, called STDSN. This echo is
for discussion of the upcoming new Star Trek television series,
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". This new series, which is not yet
in production as of this writing, is still committed to being
shown over the airwaves, starting in January, 1993, and
continuing for at least 22 episodes. This new show will, in most
cases, be seen just before, or just after, "Star Trek: The Next
Generation" (now starting its' Sixth Season) in your area.
The topic of discussion will be all things that relate to
this new series, including, but not limited to, the actors &
actresses that'll appear, the screenplays, and any "cross-over"
of characters between the new series and the "ST:TNG" series
(some is expected, more is anticipated). Discussion of The
Original Series (TOS) of Star Trek will be off-limits.
This new echo is currently seen on eight BBS's, with a
request in the works to place it on at least two FidoNet Regions
as Regional Echos. And, if traffic continues to increase, the echo
will be elgible for requesting "Backbone" status in a short
length of time.
FidoNews 9-30 Page 10 27 Jul 1992
But, for now, STDSN is privately distributed on the east side
of the Mississippi by me (1:135/70, North Miami, FL), and on the
west side by Cindy Hill, of 1:104/43 (Denver, CO). Anybody is
welcome to call and request the echo on HOLD for them to poll
any time (except ZMH, of course!) from either location.
The rules of the echo are f'able from me as STDSN.RUL, if
anyone is interested (and a copy will be sent to Mike Fuchs'
system for inclusion into the EchoList). The echo has been
duly noted as being in the EchoList as of EList.207.
Thank you, and keep on Trekkin'!!
Ray Brown Cindy Hill
Moderator Co-Moderator
1:135/70 1:104/43
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-30 Page 11 27 Jul 1992
======================================================================
LATEST VERSIONS
======================================================================
Software Versions List
Please refer to the article in this issue...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-30 Page 12 27 Jul 1992
======================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
======================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
Editors: Tom Jennings, Tim Pozar
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello
"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/1
Internet fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
BBS (415)-863-2739 (2400 only until further notice!)
(Postal Service mailing address) (have patience)
FidoNews
c/o World Power Systems
Box 77731
San Francisco
CA 94107 USA
Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
amateur electronic mail system. It is a compilation of individual
articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The
contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the
rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those
of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews.
FidoNews is copyright 1992 Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews (we're
easy).
OBTAINING COPIES: FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from
the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from
various sites in the FidoNet and via uucp. PRINTED COPIES mailed
may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each PostPaid First
Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere, mailed Air Mail.
(US funds drawn upon a US bank only.)
BACK ISSUES: Available from the following sources (and possibly
others), via filerequest or download (consult a recent nodelist for
phone numbers). Back issues are *NOT* available from FidoNews 1:1/1.
FidoNet 1:102/138 (All issues)
FidoNet 1:216/21 (All but 18 issues)
FidoNet 1:125/1212 (Some missing)
FidoNet 1:107/519.1 (All issues)
2400 bps: +1-201-473-1991
9600 bps HST: +1-201-473-2853
FidoNews 9-30 Page 13 27 Jul 1992
Internet ftp.ieee.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonew/fidonews
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
from 1:1/1 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC".
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco
CA 94107, USA and are used with permission.
Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea".
-- END
----------------------------------------------------------------------