Volume 3, Number 32 25 August 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1. Copyright (C) 1986, by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL What a Weekend! 2. ARTICLES A Colorado Springs Diary Butch Walker Speaks Out Josh Gordon Chimes In A Voice from the Mist Message encryption utility Poems of a Fido teenage user Dealing with Seagate 3. NOTICES The Interrupt Stack Metro-Fire Fido Dines Out! Mailcost 1.4 - Outgoing Host Accounting Program Updated Fidonews Page 2 25 Aug 1986 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= What a Weekend! Now that I've been back home a few days, I think I've recovered enough to write about the conference. I had planned on borrowing a PC on Sunday and writing something for last weeks newsletter about it, but I was so exhausted from three nights of less than five hours sleep per (often MUCH less) that I just wasn't up to it. Last weeks newsletter got delayed anyway due to yet another modem glitch, so it's probably just as well. All in all I'd say it went pretty well. I certainly would not have missed it for anything! It was a bit long to substitute caffeine for sleep, but it was worth it. There were quite a lot of rough edges. Nobody involved had ever run a conference before, and it did show once in awhile. Also, the whole thing got started so late that we didn't get first call on the rooms. We were constantly being pushed out by the hotel management to make room for a wedding reception, or some such. Still, COSUG did a masterful job. Also, COSUG got most of it either on tape, videotape, or both. They volunteered in a moment of weakness to transcribe it all for a series of FidoNews columns, and I mercilessly pounced, so keep your eyes on this newsletter in the coming weeks. But many people recovered even faster than I did. I got home to find no less than four articles about the conference waiting for me. I'm including them in this issue, along with anything else I may get before the deadline. As you'll see, quite a lot of controversy got stirred up. Also, quite a few solid points were made. It says I'm the editor, so I guess I'll be editorial and express some opinions. Here are my thoughts about what happened that was the most significant: 1) Randy Bush presented the report of the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee. This is a group that has been engaged in documenting what FidoNet is and how it works. Not the politics -- just the stuff that goes over the phone line. You know, technical stuff. This will have, I predict, long range impact for many years to come. Expect to see a whole crop of FidoNet compatible software coming down the pike. Two cases I know of: Bob Hartman (who recovered VERY fast) took only two days to come up with a primitive FidoNet mailer based on the spec, so we know it works. And Phil Becker (author of TBBS) was seen floating around, and now has a copy of the specs, so you can probably expect TBBS to start doing netmail before long. Fidonews Page 3 25 Aug 1986 2) A great many people expressed concern that Ken Kaplan is becoming too remote from the day-to-day hurly burly of being a sysop. I don't really see how that could be, but he's certainly going to be more accessible in the future. Step one of this is: 3) An echomail conference is being established for IFNA business. Mike Hamilton will be coordinating it, and since in any given group Mikey will be representative of the dissident elements, it will certainly be an open (and active) conference. Contact Mikey at 103/501 if you want to link into the free-for-all. 4) We absolutely MUST do this again! At least four nets offered to sponsor next year's conference. Even COSUG offered to do it again (they must be real gluttons for punishment!) All in all, it was an interesting and stimulating experience. I have no doubt that you'll be reading a great deal about it in the weeks to come. One word of caution, though: Please keep in mind that you are hearing second hand reports, and in many cases you are hearing about things that were suggested or discussed. Most of what got discussed will never actually take place. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 4 25 Aug 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Bob Hartman, 132/101 A Colorado Springs Diary I can't believe that it has been 4 days since I returned from Colorado Springs. In that time I have not yet seen any mention about what happened out there. Perhaps this is due to normal lag time, but perhaps it is just that no one has taken the bull by the horns and set it down in writing. Well, I guess I'll do it if no one else will. This will probably turn out to be a couple of messages long, so bear with me as we go through the 4 days of the birth of IFNA. Thursday 8/14/86: This was the first day of the conference, and it was pretty strange to see the looks on the faces of all of the people when they met each other. It was kind of a game to see whether or not the person you were meeting looked the same as you had pictured them. There was a general BS session, a large party at the SEA (Thom Henderson) suite, complete with some munchies and drinks (right here and now I would like to thank everyone at SEA for the hospitality they gave all weekend long!), there was the usual announcements about who was there, who would be talking, etc. It was a small prelude to what was in the future. Most of the early attendees made it a late night, but those who started IFNA made it a 4am night! Friday 8/15/86: The first real day of the conference! The entire IFNA entourage was introduced (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, Thom Henderson, Tom Jennings, and Henk Wevers). There was an interesting talk by Allen Miller about running multiple Fidos on one system using MultiLink. USRobotics made a presentation on 9600 baud modems (which was pretty disappointing to me - it seems that each manufacturer has its own standard, and a Hayes for example may not talk to a USR). Henk Wevers from the Netherlands, and Frank Thornley from the UK spoke about communications in Europe (I must admit that I missed that one). Tom Jennings gave us all a preview of Fido version 12 (just a talk, not a demo). If you thought that switching from nodes to net/nodes was bad, wait for version 12 when we switch to zone:net/node!!! The new version has a lot of bugs fixed, and can support a much larger number of nodes. It is now also configured the same way that SEAdog is - with a config file instead of those cryptic command line switches. After the evening dinner, Ezra Shapiro ("formerly" of BYTE magazine - he still does some stuff for them I guess) spoke about the microcomputer industry in general. It was quite interesting. Fidonews Page 5 25 Aug 1986 Personally during this day I jumped over the fence in terms of my involvement with IFNA. I went to the conference as a speaker, but mostly I went to represent my network as just another sysop. During the day I met with Randy Bush and got a sneak preview of the IFNA documentation of the FidoNet mail protocol. Ben Baker half jokingly asked if when I received the document I would take Rovermsg from being a message system to being the full Fido clone that I had started out to write. Well, needless to say I thought about it and decided that I probably would. That was probably a mistake, but the next thing I knew I was on the Fido Standards Committee, and was told I would be the "document tester" by actually implementing the stuff. Now all of a sudden I was almost an integral part of IFNA, and I had to look at things from a slightly different perspective. Another major milestone during the day was when it became public knowledge that there were IFNA membership forms being circulated and that it would cost $25 to be a VOTING member of IFNA. Note that it says VOTING member. Saturday 8/16/86: There were several talks this day. The first was by Andy Foray (I hope I got that right) from SEA on the internals of ARC. Since he had to run a little bit overtime I guess people were very interested. Next came my talk on the UNIX Gateway that I run. Then was probably the most interesting talk of the weekend, Dave Hughes spoke about the NAPLPS graphics environment. I don't really want to talk too much about it, but if you are interested in graphics, you should probably read up on NAPLPS. Well, all of that happened before lunch, then the S**T hit the fan! The lunch time meeting was supposed to be the first annual business meeting for a new non-profit organization called the International FidoNet Association (IFNA). Well it was quite a fiasco. I don't think that anyone had any idea about what was going to unfold. As a little bit of background, it was not yet clear what the $25 paid the day before was actually going to cover. It was unclear what constituted an IFNA member. It was unclear what the goals of IFNA were. In general, there were only 5-6 people who knew anything, and they were all at the podium, not in the audience. Well, George Wing from COSUG (who is a lawyer) tried to explain what the IFNA Articles of Incorporation said (there are three board members Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, and Thom Henderson - only because those are the only addresses Ken had when he went to the lawyer to draw up the papers). George did not expect that anything would go differently from other start-up meetings where in general the membership is asked whether this is ok, and everyone says yes. Well in this case he did the usual thing, asking for those that were for this, and those that were against. The aye's won. In theory IFNA was now born. Then many people wanted to have discussion on the matter. The term "railroaded" came up many times. Since we were about to get kicked out of the lunch room, it was decided that the vote was null and void, and that the meeting would continue in the afternoon sessions. Basically the only thing resolved was that Fidonews Page 6 25 Aug 1986 it became obvious that the opposition was not a lone individual, but a fairly sizable group of sysops (the aye's barely won in the first "railroaded" vote). In order to give people a chance to settle down, Randy Bush then spoke (as scheduled) on the Fido Standards Committee. It was the first time that many of the sysops realized that there was a movement to document everything. It was interesting, and I can say from personal involvement that Randy has been doing a great job. He should get a medal for what he has been able to accomplish. I nominate him for the First Annual Fido Citizen of the Year! After Randy spoke it was time for the S**T hitting the fan part II. To keep people under control, Ezra Shapiro volunteered to be the chairperson for the meeting (he did an excellent job, and is first runner-up to Randy for Fido Citizen of the Year, he may have won it except he is no longer a sysop). This meeting lasted for a couple of hours with everyone speaking their piece on what they thought of IFNA. It was an extremely emotional session, and it is very hard for me to remember the details. Suffice it to say that in the end the vote was to have the Board of Directors that are on the original Articles of Incorporation be the temporary board until January 1, 1987. Their task is to create the by-laws for IFNA. This will include what constitutes a member, who can vote, what the IFNA goals are, etc. Basically on January 1, they are supposed to have ready for a general vote, what some people thought should have been ready for this meeting. I would just like to say that Ezra Shapiro summed it up best by closing the session with a statement that said (as near as I remember it) "I just want to go on the record as saying that if these 3 guys [Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, and Thom Henderson] f**k up, I am going to be the first to jump all over them. It would be the downfall of the net, and that can't be allowed to happen". I am sure that I shouldn't have used quotes, but whoever has the tape recording of the meeting can transcribe what was really said. After all of the excitement of the day, the evening was spent at the Flying W Ranch where a good time was had by all. Then came wind-down time where individuals met and discussed things that had not yet been said, etc. Again the SEAdog suite was the prime meeting place. It was really the final time that you could get together with anyone that was at the conference. Sunday 8/17/86: The morning had a trip on the Cog Railway up to the top of Pike's Peak. It was a good trip, and it was nice to really see what Colorado had to offer. Most of us had spent 3 straight days in the Hilton talking, although my wife has since informed me that Colorado Springs was a very interesting place - I'll have to go back some time. General Comments and Personal Observations: First and foremost I guess I would like to say that this meeting showed that FidoNet is alive (although not quite as well as it Fidonews Page 7 25 Aug 1986 could be). Those sysops that did not attend should be quite disappointed. Next year we should all attend. The 10% turnout for this one was probably larger than expected, but with enough advance warning and preparation we should probably shoot for 50% next year. We all have a personal stake in this thing. Secondly I would like to clarify what I believe is the position IFNA is taking on the nodelist. It was clear from the meeting that the major cost of running IFNA is NOT the distribution of the nodelist. I repeat, the major cost is NOT the distribution of the nodelist. The major cost is in phone calls dealing with people who want to know more about Fido, and in answering the mail people send to inquire about Fido. Since the preparation of the nodelists is semi-automatic, and regional coordinators POLL IFNA for it, the cost of distribution is not what is hurting them. Anyway, after spending about 1 1/2 hours of a 2 hour flight from Colorado Springs to St. Louis talking with Ken Kaplan and his wife Sally, I think that what is "official" policy is that it will not cost anyone to be in the nodelist! It will cost a sysop, or anyone else $25 to be a VOTING member of IFNA. This will entitle you to vote on future directions of the organization, and also to use additional IFNA services (which are many and varied and will be implemented as time/money allow). According to Ken, the only way that money will be charged for entry into the nodelist will be if it becomes absolutely necessary to slow the growth of the network for technical reasons. This is based on the assumption that enough people will join IFNA based on their "extra services". If this is not the case, then to generate the revenue required to keep Ken, Ben, etc. from going broke helping people, it may come to paying to get into the nodelist. I may be naive, but it seems to me that $25 to be a voting member is a good deal. I certainly have asked $25 worth of questions since becoming a Fido sysop (I couldn't have created RENUM or ROVERMSG without asking a lot of questions). A final observation: Ken, Ben and Thom are supposed to start an Echomail conference dealing with what should be in the IFNA by- laws. I haven't seen it started yet, so how about getting on the stick guys. If we don't start now while things are fresh in our minds we may lose a lot of input. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 8 25 Aug 1986 Here is the text of a message from Butch Walker (161/1) to Tom Jennings regarding the Conference: Tom- You probably noticed that I wasn't in Colorado Springs. [grin]. I have only heard from 2 attendee's so far, but what I heard was not encouraging. I was very upset to hear that proxy votes were not accepted for those of us who could not attend. It seems to me that the deck was stacked from the beginning, or am I missing something? Let me say, that I have no problem with you charging for Fido, but I would like some more information along that line. For example, what will the cost be, what constitutes a version, how often will the documentation change, etc. One of the advantages of the current system is that a potential Sysop can download things, get his system setup and running and then apply to join the net. If you are going to start charging for the software and there will be no downloadable docs how does the new sysop come on line? Also if IFNA is going to start charging for the nodelist, do I start charging for helping a new node come on line? I mean what the hell, let's all get greedy. Maybe I should start charging for my services as a host? What is IFNA going to do with the bucks it collects? What can I and the members of my net expect in return other than the nodelist, which is automated and without myself and the rest of the hosts sending in our updates wouldn't exist anyway. Am I going to be reimbursed for my costs in putting the nodelist together? Or how about my costs to mail my changes in or to download the nodelist and distribute it each week? I mean if someone is going to make bucks off of my efforts, shouldn't I get a piece of the pie? Are either you or IFNA going to provide local support for my nodes when they need help or run into a problem, how about to the brand new Sysop that wants to come on line and join the net? Is IFNA going to hold his hand by phone to get him on line the way I and some of my Hubs do now? Do we maybe get a commission for the memberships we sell? I will carbon copy this to Ken. I would appreciate some answers to the above questions. After all we have an excellent medium here for exchanging information, ideas, discussion and gathering votes. What a novel idea, electronic communication! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 9 25 Aug 1986 Here is the text of a message from Josh Gordon (161/93) to Butch Walker regarding the Conference: Butch: The article was interesting and about what I expected. I'm not particularly concerned about the actual charges; it represents a small portion of my phone bill, at any rate (though that might not hold true for everyone), and wouldn't hurt me. The politics are also not surprising; the lack of a published agenda and the manipulation and secrecy by the folks with a vested interest is the offensive part, and I'm more than willing to write that off as small group dynamics in a semi-anarchist organization (i.e., FidoNet Sysops, as opposed to the inner core of IFNA czars). However, we have certain defenses against this. IFNA (being by definition a non-profit corporation) has to have certain things: a set of by-laws is the most important. We (Fidonet sysops) are the interested class, and it would be hard for the Comintern (oh, sorry, the IFNA board) to do much of anything without most of the Sysops agreeing. If they act heavy-handed enough, piss on them-- we can have our own goddamn network without ANYTHING on their part. We don't need them at all unless we WANT them. So far the services have been merely providing a nodelist; I've seen nothing else. (Am I missing something?) And most of the tools and such have been written by people working from pure love, without any vested interests (except to get a nice tool for themselves.) I think a period of reflection is called for now. I am more than willing to pay TJ $20 for Fido and even another $19.95 for a manual--in fact, I would have been happy to pay $19.95 for a manual in the first place, rather than have to fool with that obnoxiously formatted one that was published in the first place (it ate up at least 2/5 of an hour of my time getting it right, and my time is worth $50/hour minimum, so...) And $25/yr for IFNA is also no big deal; nodes that don't want to pay that amount essentially would have to get all their mail routed through their hubs or hosts, and if they expected file transfers, they'd have to tell the source of the transfer all the relevant info so that the source could make a special entry in their xlatgen.ctl or whatever. So it's not the potential disaster that Shackleford implies. (I'm sure there will be a lot of loud screaming from the Mikeys of the world. Tough.) A few thoughts. If all of the Fidos in the world joined IFNA, they would have $25,000 to mess around with every year. As a non-profit organization, they'd have to do something appropriate with that money. None of it should be spent for salaries or anything like that; that's inappropriate, and would be grounds for people to say "screw them". However, if the money was used to cover phone bills of the hosts, then it would make a LOT of sense. Hosts are paying a disproportionate share of the load, as far as I can see; if there are (say) 100 hosts, then they'd each get $250/yr relief for their phone bills. That's about the only useful thing I can see such a large amount of money used for. You might want to stick this letter in SYSOP or NET. I'll leave Fidonews Page 10 25 Aug 1986 it up to you. I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I sure don't need the political headaches of taking an activist stance on this issue. But the most important thing is maintaining FidoNet as a viable mode of communication; if the consensus really is that $25/yr will keep the net up, then I'll happily pay it. Keyword is CONSENSUS. Changing from an open, free system to a semi- controlled system in midstream is fraught with peril. (On the other hand, it might filter out the Mikeys and Traceys and Dobyns of the world. Sadly, it might ALSO filter out the Shacklefords. Oh well.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 11 25 Aug 1986 Grey Mist Conference Report Hoo boy! I'm tired! Lots has happened in the past few days, I toured Garden of the Gods, went driving through the mountains (them suckers are bigger than Texas Hill Country, a little) and took a train ride up Pike's Peak. I also found out that Echomail is a Fidonet Household word, we had 60-70 boards represented there and during my presentation I asked how many were running Echomail. 95% of them are! (where do I begin?) The first night, things went well, I had arrived Wednesday night and played around until the first session Thursday night. My wife had made me a shirt with a BIG bullseye on it and the words "Echomail", "Creator" on it. I wore that into the meeting and quietly sat down near the front. I started hearing whispers and comments from behind, some people laughing. Thom Henderson gave an opening speech about Fidonet and such, and mentioned message traffic going up but didn't say why. One guy shouted "Echomail!" from the audience. They called for a round of applause for the success of Fido (Tom Jenning didn't show until Friday). As it died down, someone hollered, "How about a round of applause for the author of Echomail?" Thom and the other people glanced around puzzled, and then everyone around me started pointing at me and clapping. I slowly stood up and turned around to everyone and when I turned my back to the speaker podium, I thought Ben Baker and Thom were going to die! They started making bow and arrow gestures at me. And so it went. Everyone seemed to want to talk to me, everywhere I went someone had a question or suggestion. Pretty neat, I had no idea of the impact of Echomail. I figured maybe 30-40% would have even heard of it, which I thought was pretty good. I got a slew of notes for improvements in Echomail and a much better understanding of how it is used. Some people NEED to host-rout Echomail, for example. My presentation of Echomail was shared with Rob Barker, author of an Editorial in SYSOP about the quality of messages and such. He spoke about avoiding messages which mean nothing out of context of other messages, personal mail and such. Tom Jennings spoke about Fido v12, due out the end of September, I believe. It is a major rework with area-specific capabilities lists, 'zones' to support growth of the nodelist (1:124/206), 1=USA, 2=UK. It will also come with a professionally done manual for $35 or so, cost undetermined. No other docs will be available, you pay or you don't have docs. There are no plans for charging for v12 itself, although a very firm distinction was made between IFNA and Fido Software Inc. Tom Jennings is the sole owner, officer, etc. of Fido Software, Inc and may do or charge anything he wishes. If he wishes to charge IFNA for additional code, then he may. IFNA will not be charging for v12. Everything went smoothly until Saturday... Then things blew apart! Mikey was causing troubling everytime I turned around. At the Business Meeting/Luncheon, IFNA attempted to railroad us. Fidonews Page 12 25 Aug 1986 Now, such railroading was meant in good intentions. (I.E. Railroading is the performance of some act for or to someone else without their permission or control. It says nothing about the act being good or bad for either party). George Wing waved the Articles of Confederation that Ken Kaplan had already filed to form IFNA and asked for a confirming vote. No discussion as to what IFNA meant, its rules, etc. Oh, and the day before, we were offered membership forms for $25 to join IFNA. If you did not pay, you can't vote in the business meeting. But at the luncheon, everyone was hollering and banging on tables and such. Mikey wanted discussion, wanted to know what IFNA intended to do, etc. George was flustered, Thom got quite angry etc. George kept saying, "This is just Business BS, lets approve it and get on with the more important things. We have to leave this room in 35 minutes, we don't have TIME to discuss it. Its just lawyer BS, you don't care about it." He was shouted down. He had called for a vote without stating WHO could vote, when asked he said, "Well, only those who have paid". That upset other people who wanted to pay, but wanted to FIND OUT WHAT IFNA WAS FIRST. Tom Jennings stated that these people (Ken, Ben, etc.) had been running Fidonet for 2.5 years, and that they could keep on running it. Mikey wanted to expel Ken Kaplan from the Board of Directors (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker and Thom Henderson, 3- member board). It was suggested that they expand the board and George, etc. just said, "Look. Lets just confirm this paper and we can change it later. Once the paper is filed, we can change any of the terms, etc. Its just a formality.", but the problem was the paper didn't tell who could vote, how to make changes, etc. Without a framework for graceful change, relying on the good will of the officers, no one wanted to accept it. And the officers were offended that no one would simply pay $25 and trust them to use the money/power with no strings. Anyway, the meeting time went by without agreement and we had to adjourn into the upstairs bar, and clear the agenda of the rest of the day. Tempers were flairing and things were pretty bad. We tried to discuss in the bar and people still were interrupting and hollering. So we broke again and when we came back, Ezra Shapiro of Byte was voted to be Chairman and to keep order. Then we basically ran a VERY controlled meeting with votes disallowed and let everyone who wanted to get up and make a speech and ask questions in an orderly fashion. Facts were not disputed and such, opinions were allowed to be expressed without response to get the feelings out on the table. After 1-2 hours of this blood-letting, people began to change and stand up and confirm IFNA, thanking them for running Fidonet this well for these years. Everyone began to have a better understanding of things and feelings. The three officers as INTERIM officers, with the power to draw up bylaws and a list of IFNA goals, until Jan 1, at which time we will have an election. Until then, an IFNA Echomail conference will be set up (initially in SYSOP) to discuss all the issues, so as to allow more time for discussion and to bring in those people who couldn't make the conference. Everyone felt better and we Fidonews Page 13 25 Aug 1986 went to the Flying W Ranch! The $25 we paid was considered a contribution, not a membership fee. Anyone could ask for it back, but no one did that I saw. (Whew) It was all very exciting and yet very tiring too. I would like to discuss this in the next SYSOP PICNIC (which I just missed). John Summers was there as was a friend of the Wintermute Creator from net 124. (Durn! Sorry, I can't think of his name). Three sysops were from College Station, and Jeff (Wintermute Creator) from Austin was there. Overall, Texas was well represented. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 14 25 Aug 1986 From 130/1, The AmERICan BBS, Sysop Eric Ewanco I have written a new utility that I hope many Fido sysops will find of use. I am engaged in EchoMail, and I noticed many messages on there about message security in FidoNet. I had also thought about and read what others had to say about the lack of privacy in EchoMail. Private messages in EchoMail are useless; not only can all Sysops read them, but even if they couldn't, they can ASCII dump the file. So I wrote a utility to encrypt Fido form messages so that only the person with the right decryption key can read them. The messages are encrypted in this fashion. All printable characters excluding the space are encrypted into other printable characters excluding the space; this is the range '!' (0x21) to '~' (0x7e). Thus, no message utility should barf due to strange non-printable codes. Hard and soft carriage returns are not encrypted. Originally, I encrypted spaces too, but found problems with SEAdog first with word wrapping and changed it. The key can be as long as will fit on the command line and must contain only the characters mentioned above, lest the chars be encrypted into chars out of that range. You may use underscores for spaces. Case is sensitive. The parts of the message encrypted are the body and subject. MSGCRYPT is naturally compatible with EchoMail. To do this, the encrypted text is bracketed with a start and end header. When decrypted, any lines before the start marker and after the end marker are not decrypted. This goes ONLY for the body; no such markers exist in the subject. The subject is only touched as far as I know in SEAdog when you reply, and that's before encryption. The encryption technique used in MSGCRYPT is not complicated, nor as simple as an XOR. The key is scanned and rescanned as many times as possible to relate one character of the key with one character of the message. These are converted to be based to 0, then added and modulated to be within range. A checksum of the 1 compliments of the characters in the key to up that point is made, modulated, add to the current sum, which is then modulated and based to 33 again. This is the encrypted character. It seems to be foolproof. MSGCRYPT is now undergoing beta testing; but by the time you read this, it will probably be released. It is available for SEAdog pickup as MSGCRYPT.ARC on 130/3; if you don't have SEAdog, drop me a note and I'll file attach and hold a message for you to poll. MSGCRYPT will be distributed under the same pretense as XLATLIST, ARC, LISTGEN, FIDO, etc. etc. etc. Free to hobbiests (we're all freeloaders, I know) but a small charge will be required of non-public users, although I will trust them to pay it and not push anyone. If you aren't required to pay for Fido, you won't be required to pay for MSGCRYPT. I hope many of you will have a use for this utility from 130/3. Fidonews Page 15 25 Aug 1986 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 16 25 Aug 1986 From node 130/3, The AmERICan BBS, Sysop Eric Ewanco I am 16 years old, and I run a very respectable board. I recently had a Commodore 64 user on (I know, I usually feel the same way), a 14 year old woman, and I got to know her well. She told me that she had written some poems and I asked to read them. I thought that they were so good that I'd share them with a few thousand others, and FidoNews provided the perfect way. So here they are; two poems by Lorri Leigh Culp of Burleson, Texas. DREAMS Once in a lifetime You have a dream The kind of man you've always wanted, The one you've never seen. You think of him You dream of him All you can do is stare He's the guy you've always wanted But now ... he isn't there. Dreams can carry you Dreams can kill Dreams can hurt 'Til you get your fill You're in that fantasy No one can break Until that vital moment You some how wake They tear you apart inside out They say it was just a dream They tell you to forget But nothing can change what you think you have seen -- Written 6-20-85. by Lorri Leigh Culp Illusions Picture yourself in a dream of mirrors Wondering where to turn. Picture yourself in a room of roses Fidonews Page 17 25 Aug 1986 And wondering who will get burned. Seeing youself alone in the darkness Wondering what you'll see; Seeing youself in a room of sunlight Wondering what you'll be. Illusions are wonderful Illusions are great Illusions can make you wonder Is this my fate?? Illusions are fantasies Illusions are real Illusions are touching What you can not feel. Picture yourself in a room with someone Fantasies on your mind; Picture yourself in a room alone And wondering what you'll find. Someone is there watching and waiting Waiting for you to arrive; But as you look back, deep in in your mind There are only signs of goodbye. -- Written 7-11-85 Poems (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 by Lorri L. Culp. All rights reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 18 25 Aug 1986 Robert A. Rudolph Fido 109/628 Seagate - do you REALLY want their product? By now almost everyone who knows me knows I love Seagate disc drives - they are small, relatively inexpensive, low in power demand and easy on your mind because they are as reliable as a pet rock. Did you ever wonder what happens if you need a part? My experience is that if you need a part there are lots of people who will sell you a whole drive, but NOBODY will sell you a small part. I recently bought a second ST-225 for my PC clone. I bought it from someone I knew who had upgraded and had a nearly new ST-225 that he no longer needed. I was glad to get it, and the day I brought it home, I took the case off the PC and installed it. I made an error or two, which the vendor of my clone cheerfully helped me correct. The drive came up and ran. I was happy. Then one day I cut power to the PC because of an electrical storm and the drive did not come up. In the process of isolating the fault (which turned out not to be the drive), on the advice of the Seagate folks I removed some terminating resistor packs from the PC board on the drives. Did not help any, so I put everything back together and took the PC to the clone vendor, who helped me isolate a problem to the controller, and replaced the resistor pack that I had damaged with one from an in-stock drive, asking me to get him another. Well, I HAD HAD another, but it was on my desk and the cat got up there and it disappeared. I thought "Well, it is a small part that can't cost more than a buck or two, we'll call Seagate and see who sells them". So I called Seagate and talked to a number of pleasant people, and was reassured that Hamilton-Avnet would sell me parts, so I called a Hamilton-Avnet near me and described the part to the nice person on the phone, who told me that he would sell me all the disk drives at $350 each I wanted but would sell no parts. Further discussion ensued, and soon I was told that since I was a person and not a business he couldn't even sell me a drive, and he had no idea where I could get parts. I called Seagate back and was told that there must have been an error in understanding, and that Hamilton-Avnet was the official distributor. So I called Hamilton-Avnet in Pittsburgh with the same tale. They were a bit nicer - they tried to find the part and could not, but said they could probably deal with me if I could get the Seagate part number. So I called Seagate back (sound familiar?) and explained what had transpired to another nice young lady, who recommended that I Fidonews Page 19 25 Aug 1986 call the repair facility that Seagate has in Florida. I did so and was advised that the small parts would not be available from anyone but Seagate since "Seagate has a monopoly on their small parts", but I could buy them from the repair facility if I did not mind the $50 minimum order policy, or they could sell me all the disk drives I wanted at $350 per. I was not then and am not now interested in paying 100 times the value of a part, but may have to do that as I am honor bound to replace the part that was loaned to me. Seagate's reputation for reliability is unparalleled and within the limits of my knowledge and experience the reputation is well founded. It does not do my impression of the firm any good to learn that no matter what breaks if I can find the part at all it will cost me fifty bucks for another one. I understand that there are costs involved with everything, but I can remember a time when a vendor would simply throw a few such small parts in an envelope and send them out and mark it up to good will. A firm in West Germany has done that several times when I needed small parts for a model railroad. I am willing to pay a reasonable amount, and even put up with a certain amount of BS for being foolish enough to have encroached on the sacred body of a disk drive, although after almost 20 years in hardware and software support for such firms as Univac, Memorex and Control Data I am more qualified than many so-called technicians I know. I STILL think that Seagate has the best disc drive going. My opinion of that will probably not change. However, I'll never buy another one. Non-availability of parts is unconscionable. Ridiculous costs and open admission of a monopolistic policy as regards parts source should not be tolerated. Seagate is entitled to a profit. I am entitled to serviceability. Counting all parts I could see, there are over 120 discrete components. At $50 a crack, that is $6000 for a $350 disc drive. And yet I do not need another drive; I have 2 and that is all I need. Perhaps this silliness was caused by some lower level personnel at Seagate flexing their muscle, I do not know. I hope that a monopolistic practice and a denial of parts to users does not represent the official policy of Seagate. Until I know for certain, I'll buy no more Seagate drives. I encourage all of you out in Fido-Land to consider doing the same. If anyone asks why, show them this article. If any of you know anyone within the Seagate organization, show them this and see what the reaction is - and please let me know via FidoMail at 109/628. And if anyone has a spare terminating resistor pack for a price more reasonable that $50, I'll take it - my friend needs it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 20 25 Aug 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Echomail Conference for real and would-be C programmers. The conference is now up and running. Contact 103/511 or 124/108 to join in. The name of the conference in Echomailish is "C_ECHO". ----------------------------------------------------------------- Christopher Baker Metro-Fire Fido, 135/14(0) Metro-Fire Fido will be having a Labor Day Eve Picnic on Sunday, 31 Aug 86, from 1400-2000 at S.W. 212 Avenue & 168 Street, on the edge of the Everglades. All Fido Sysops and families are invited to attend. If you will be in Miami, Florida over the Labor Day weekend and wish to attend, send a FidoNet message to 135/14 and I will send you an ARC containing a map and details. The picnic will feature a Floppy Disk Throwing Contest and the First Net 135 Sysops Meeting. Come on down! ----------------------------------------------------------------- David Dodell Fido 114/15 - 1/98 MAILCOST - the outgoing host accounting program has been updated to now support both Fido and SEADog logs. This program with its companion program, MAILRPT, allows any net to setup an outgoing host. There is now the ability to keep track for cost purposes of all packet going through a particular node. If you are running SEADog, MCOST14.ARC can be file-requested any time from Fido 114/15. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * National Science-Fiction and Fantasy Echomail Conference * Fidonews Page 21 25 Aug 1986 Contact Mike J at 150/900 for a hook-up. If you're not on the national list, be sure to include your phone number. -----------------------------------------------------------------