Volume 4, Number 46 14 December 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Dale Lovell, Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1987 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 at (314) 576-4067. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Fee Based Bulletin Board Systems ......................... 1 Benchmark Testing Of Archive Utilities ................... 3 GizLib - A Fine Improvement To Quick Basic ............... 5 StarSeed -- A New Age BBS ............................... 9 A New Kind of DUPE ....................................... 10 Softguard Strikes Out At Honest Pc-Users ................. 12 2. NOTICES .................................................. 15 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 15 Region 18 Nodelist Changes ............................... 15 Latest Software Versions ................................. 15 FidoNews 4-46 Page 1 14 Dec 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Bob Allman, 161/8 and 123/7 Fee Based Bulletin Board Systems: Bill Paul's FidoNews 4-37 Article and the Responses Bill Paul, Sysop of The Think Tank, 123/7, Memphis, Tennessee, authored an article which outlined his thoughts on BBS fee charging practices and solicited feedback from others. What I seek here is to provide a synopsis of the feedback he shared with me and offer my own observations. Bill queried the propriety of users financially supporting a hobby, and equated fees received with obligations incurred by the recipient. He did acknowledge echomail and netmail services were legitimately chargeable to users of those services. Responses were received from among others: 381/20, 107/16, 381/1, 148/1, 115/478, a PC-Board SysOp, a Miami SysOp and Don Daniels, President of IFNA. Here, with apologies to the respondents for any loss of context, are the major points made: - Fee payers' are better and more committed users. - User support, financial and otherwise, is conducive to system excellence and longevity. - Fees seperate users who want a system's services from curiosity seekers and twits. - Fees reduce system access gridlock problems. - Fees can be mandatory for access, tied to special priviledges only, or solicited analogous to the shareware concept (eg your donation will be gratefully accepted). - Fee supported systems do incur some obligations on the part of the operators consistant with the fee basis. - Users do derive benefits, systems are only as good as the sysops AND their users - hence BBSs' are two way streets. - System operation is expensive. - Hobby activity and community service don't have to be mutually exclusive. - FidoNet shouldn't include any system designed and operated exclusively to make money. - Bulletin Board Systems and Electronic Mail Networks are different; BBSs can be free, networks require management and appropriate financial involvement. - No one rule can be equally applied to every BBS. Having been involved in a user group initiative to provide funding to a Net to help defray costs, I know that responsible users, concerned with both the benefits received from excellent systems and the commensurate high costs of operating good systems are not unwilling to donate their time or money unsolicited by SysOps. Bill's issue, I believe, was on what basis should money FidoNews 4-46 Page 2 14 Dec 1987 change hands. Is it a form of contract, with obligations on the part of both parties? I think so. The terms "user" and "operator" alone impart a sense of this relationship. I have no tolerance for board "rapists" and twits who believe access to systems are their god given right, nor SysOps who want monies up front without providing a trial period to permit prospective users to reasonably evaluate their fee-based systems. Let them both be plagued with gridlock, line noise and faulty modems! I believe that non-profit making fees are an acceptable option for System Operators. But the option does incur obligations to provide services commensurate with the fee charged. This is rarely a problem as most fee structures are nominal, and I know of no case of a system going fee-based only to shut down within weeks without making appropriate refunds. My preference is that any fee-based system be willing to extend to prospective new users a short "check it out" period. Sure, downloads and to a lesser degree, message base access can be limited, but no one likes to invest in anything sight unseen. I find too many of the "new" fee-based systems want money before you can see anything but the logon welcome, registration form, and the logoff screen. Good systems have nothing to fear from scrutiny and that is the basis upon which the appropriateness of fees should be judged. To set the record straight, I have been active in telecommunications for number of years and, although having moved from Tennessee to California in July 1986, I continue to be a registered user of Bill's system. I have never been a SysOp, although I have Sub-SysOped or SigOped for several systems. I am an active user of electronic mail networks and message bases. I am NOT speaking for Bill, although I publicly wish to thank him for providing the Think Tank's great forum. Replies may be addressed to 123/7 or 161/8. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 3 14 Dec 1987 Gene Coppola 107/246 Benchmark Testing Of Archive Utilities With the release of version 1.5 of the Zoo archive utility, I decided to run my benchmark tests and report on the 3 major archive utilities again. For those of you that have read my past articles, you are familiar with these tests. For new readers, I will explain the tests now. The test are run against a standard collection of 14 files I have put aside for these types of tests. The total size of the 14 files together are 269118 bytes. Some are .COM, some are .EXE and some are .OVL files. The times reported below are the average of 10 tests for each program I tested. The equipment I run the test on has changed. I am now using a QT/2-6 computer. This is a PS/60 clone with twelve (12) Megabytes of Ram installed on the motherboard. The clock speed is 20Mhz. An 80386 is the main processor. An 80387 NDP is installed as well. The hard drive used for testing is a Seagate ST-251 with an access time of 23 ms. The price of the QT/2-6 is $2450 as tested. A seperate sub-directory was created for testing purposes. The drive was optimized (Mace 4.10) between tests to provide accurate results. OS/2 (Beta) was used as the operating system for these tests. Here are the time results of the tests. NAME TYPE OF OPERATION % REDUCED MINS SECS HUDS ======================================================== PKARC35 Create An Archive 34 Percent 00 09 02 ZOO150 Create An Archive 33 Percent 00 17 06 ARC520 Create An Archive 33 Percent 00 56 13 PKXARC Extract An Archive N/A 00 05 14 ZOO150 Extract An Archive N/A 00 07 15 ARCE Extract An Archive N/A 00 07 21 ARC520 Extract An Archive N/A 00 42 14 KEY: N/A=Not Applicable In This Test As you can see PKARC has come in again as the fastest utility for creating an archive. PKXARC is the fastest extraction utility. ARC520 still does not recognize other archive formats. PKARC35 will produce either it's own ARC format file or you may produce an ARC520 formatted file. ZOO150 creates it's own formatted file. As computer speeds get faster, I expect to see these times remain relatively stable. The work these programs do is disk FidoNews 4-46 Page 4 14 Dec 1987 intensive. I expect that in the future speed gains will be from faster drives, and not from faster computers. I hope this helps some of you who are new to computers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 5 14 Dec 1987 GizLib A Fine Improvement To Quick Basic GIZLIB is a set of routines that are callable from either QB3 or QB4. Some, such as ERRMSG, more resemble sub-programs than sub- routines. To say this is not to overstate their value, but to point out that, in general, they perform or can perform multiple functions or entire routines. Most of the routines are assembler based, but where it makes more sense, they are in QB. In terms of speed and such, assembler based is undoubtedly faster (though I doubt that the amount by which it is faster is always noticeable) QB routines on the other hand can be a bit more useful, the most noticeable difference being that QB subroutines can alter string lengths while assembler cannot. The downside is that QB routines are a bit bigger, but I still appreciate having them right on hand and not having to type them in numerous times. II. Calling Conventions If you are not familiar with calling library routines from QB, you are advised to STUDY this in the QB books, as it is an important aspect of calling sub programs. Brief Rules: A. The passed parameters shown do not need to be used literally as is. That is, if a routine is documented as: CALL myroutine(StringParm$, IntegerParm%) The following convention will work just as well: CALL myroutine(parm1$, parm2%) The following will not (because the variable data types are reversed): CALL myroutine(StringParm%, IntegerParm$) What this is saying is that called subroutine parameters are only POSITIONAL, but they can have any name you choose ("IntegerParm%" vs "parm2%"), and as long as the TYPE is correct (integer versus string variables, versus double precision etc), and as long as the passed arguments are initialized correctly. B. Unless otherwise noted, subroutines require non-string arguments to be INTEGERS. This means that either a DEFINT a-z statements is required early on in your program or numeric arguments must be implicitly set to integers, ie; the "%" integer declaration used. C. Aside from the right TYPE of argument or parameter being passed, and the use of integers, make sure you pass the right FidoNews 4-46 Page 6 14 Dec 1987 NUMBER of arguments. If a program requires you to pass 7 arguments and either as a typo or because you only use 6, you miss one within the parentheses, then as they say, unpredictable results may occur. D. In most cases, the examples shown will reference parameters as variables. ie: CALL subr(x%, y%, z$); where x, y and z$ are set to certain values to get specific results from the routine. However in many cases, you can pass arguments directly. ie: CALL subr(1, 4, "String"). The times when you CANNOT do such direct passing is when the subroutine is going to modify or return one of the arguments passed. Some routines will change one of the arguments to indicate an error or a level of success. Those arguments that are altered or changed by the subroutine MUST be passed as a variable. For example, if "subr" above uses x, y and z$ to specify what you want it to do and y returns a level of success or error situation, it would have to be passed as a variable: CALL subr(1, y%, "String") E. Major QB 3.0 bug There is a fairly well known bug in QB3 that creates non- executing .EXE files when your program performs calls to assembler routines. The work around is this: DO NOT compile your source from INSIDE the editor to make a .OBJ file. DO exit to DOS and make the .OBJ file from DOS: C>QB myprog /o; Then when you link it, the EXE file will run. By "fairly well known bug" I mean that most serious users know about it. I have let MicroSoft know and provided 4 examples and they now understand what the problem is, but DO NOT expect a fix for it, because they are more intent on OS/2 and QB4 is now out. Here is a brief list of the available commands in GizLib and a brief description of each one. GizLib Quick Reference Guide Version 1.3 Released: November 29, 1987 FidoNews 4-46 Page 7 14 Dec 1987 GIZLIB Index ------------- BOXES ........... Outline one of 6 menu type boxes to the screen. * CHRP ............ Sound the speaker in a CHiRP fashion. CLOFF / CLON .... Disengage-engage keyboard Caps Lock. ** CLRKBD .......... Clear keyboard buffer of type-ahead keys. CMDLINE ......... Parse the command line into a string array. CPUINFO ......... Returns very low level system info, cpu type etc. DATE ............ Returns current day, month, year and day of week as integers. DFRMAT .......... Date Formatting. +4 DIR.............. Returns DOS directory in a string array. DLRFRMAT ........ Numeric string formatting to Dollar conventions. DLY ............. Delay for x number of seconds. DOSV............. Return DOS Version installed. DRVSPACE ........ Return total and free drive space. * ERRMSG .......... Display temporary message with color, sound control. EXIST ........... Determines if a file exists on disk or not. EXTMEM .......... Return the amount of Extended (AT) memory installed. FADE ............ Screen fade or dissolve routine, maintains attributes. FILCNT........... Returns the number of files in disk matching a mask. FED ............. BASIC text input routine. ** GETDSEG ......... Returns BASIC's DS (Data Segment) ** GETSTACK ........ Returns the state of BASIC's Stack. ** GET/SET DRV ..... Get or set the default drive. ** GET/SET VERFY ... Get or set the system VERIFY state. GRAPH ........... Produce a Vertical or Horizontal graph from an array. KBLOOP .......... Enter a blind loop until a key is pressed. -3 LCASE ........... Convert a string to lower case ** MDLY ............ Delay processing for a number of milliseconds. NFRMAT .......... Extensive Numeric string formatting. NLOFF / NLON .... Disengage-engage Keyboard Num Lock PCASE ........... Convert string to proper case. PINIT ........... Initialize the printer. ** PFILE ........... Send a disk file to printer. PRTSCRN ......... Print the current display on the printer. PSTAT ........... Return the printer status. QUIKPRT ......... Another implementation of BYTE's qprint routine. RAMFREE ......... Returns memory installed in the FidoNews 4-46 Page 8 14 Dec 1987 system. ** RSTSCRN / SVSCRN. Restores a screen previously saved by SVSCRN U-,D- SCROLL .... Scroll a portion of the screen up or down. ** SCROLLER ........ Scroll the screen left or right. SCRLOFF / SCRLON. Set Scroll Lock Off. SCRNDUMP ........ Dump the current display to disk. SETERR .......... Sets DOS "ERRORLEVEL" code upon program termination. * SINFO ........... Equipment info: RAM, parallel, serial, EGA and VGA. -3 STRIP ........... Strip Leading and trailing blanks from a string. -3 STRIPL .......... Strip trailing blanks and tabs from string. -3 STRIPR .......... Strip leading blanks and tabs from string. TFRMAT .......... Time formatting -3 UCASE ........... Converts a string to upper case ** WDW ............. Windowing subroutine with sound, color control. * Minor improvement from previous version ** New or Major enhancement in this release -3 Routine is in QB3 USERLIB ONLY. +4 Has altered syntax or requirements in QB4 (QLB). GizLib can be downloaded from the author's bulletin board system at (316)-684-8744. It may also be SEAdog requested from 107/246. Request the file "GIZLIB" (without the quotes) to get the entire package. The file is archived and is about 120k. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 9 14 Dec 1987 StarSeed Fido 15/1001 Jami Morgan, Sysop If you are interested in metaphysical topics, expanding and/or opening your mind to new thoughts, or just curious then you should drop by StarSeed -- A New Age BBS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's Node 15/1001 or you can call direct (505) 822-8268 AFTER 10 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (10 pm - 10 am, daily). A special discussion area called Stargate offers interesting comments on a wide range of New Age topics. WHAT IS NEW AGE? Well, Omni Magazine took a stab at defining it in their October issue. It was described as a consciousness, a concept, an alternative religion, a sub-culture, a new era, and a holistic approach to life. I would say it's all of the above. It's an open-minded search for answers to life's questions. It encompasses such things as astrology, sciences of the mind and body, herbal medicine, native american practices, eastern religion and other alternative religions, earth magic, crystal power, the supernatural and/or para-normal. On the lighter side, there is also a great Science Fiction Conference and "OddQuest" -- a silly adventure game (just starting). StarSeed has been in operation around 6 months (the same Fido Node has been around for over four years). I would like to start a New Age Echo Conference if the interest is out there. If you are so inclined, drop by StarSeed. If any nodes are interested in such an echo, please contact me at 15/1001. *** Jami Morgan, StarSeed Sysop ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 10 14 Dec 1987 Larry DiGioia NEVERBOARD -- 129/17 DUPLICATION OF ECHOMAIL CONFERENCES If you are keeping track of the various echomail conferences that are forming almost daily, you will have noticed a rather distressing trend: DUPLICATION OF SUBJECT MATTER. An example: For more than two years (since before echomail) there has been a discussion area on my board called "Electric Images". When I let it out into the rest of the matrix I shortened the name to simply "IMAGES". The subject of the conference has been movies, via both theatre and videocassette, and "regular" video as in "TV". As of last month, it had made it's way across the country and had many enthusiastic participants. Then I started seeing an area available on some of the large echo hubs called "FILM", as well as another called "REVIEWS". Both were supposed to have the same subject matter as IMAGES. I started out by entering messages into these echoes, asking who the coordinator was. I got no response (well, almost no response; one person replied saying "coordinator? what's a coordinator? why do we need one?") I tried again, this time asking "if there is no coordinator, could someone at least tell me who started this thing?" No response. Finally, after I arranged to actually receive both echoes on my board, I decided to concede to the greater distribution of FILM (which actually had some messages in it) and merge my own conference into it by renaming it to FILM. Meanwhile, after several more tries, still no one answers to the title of coordinator in REVIEWS. I am also seeing three different but similar "MUSIC" echoes, and many more along those lines. The point is, I thought that we had an "official keeper of the echolist" (Thomas Kenny) who puts out an excellent list of echoes, along with their coordinators and hub numbers. Heck, it was even included inside this very newsletter! I guess not everyone reads it. I don't have any particular solution to this problem, except to say that I hope in the future that sysops, echomail coordinators and all others involved in distribution will keep a closer watch on what is actually going around, subject-wise. I should also point out that experience has shown that an echo with no coordinator doesn't last very long, and at best will degenerate into random discussion and flames. I would also like to take this opportunity to plug some of the echoes that I coordinate here at NEVERBOARD: SHORTWAVE - discussion of radio listening, including long- distance reception on HF bands, as well as broadcast band, scanners, satellites, and "PIRATE" radio. No ham radio. FidoNews 4-46 Page 11 14 Dec 1987 AUDIO - discussion of stereo equipment and accessories, sound reinforcement, tips for improved sound, and the recordings that provide the best examples of Hi Fi. FILM - discussion of movies, including those in theatres, on videocassette and broadcast. Also video hardware such as HDTV, Hi Fi VCRs, and satellite TV. DR_DEBUG - The one and only! He's a little eccentric and yes, he has been known to spill a little Gin on his magnetic media. But you won't find a better authority on software for a variety of computers, including IBM, COMMODORE, APPLE and ATARI. Ask here, if he can't answer it then you don't need to know. The Doctor is IN! We also carry MUSIC, SF, HUMOR and many other conferences. Come and get it! NEVERBOARD - Pittsburgh Pa. - 129/17 - 412-243-5880 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 12 14 Dec 1987 From: The SysOp BBS Quantico, VA (703)640-2603 To: All Sysops Subj: TROJAN ALERT It seems SOFTGUARD may be distributing a TROJAN "unprotect" program to erase disks and bolster their "shrinking" copy protection business. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The following message was found on the Morningstar Keep node of the Citadel BBS system (609)268-9597. What makes this message especially alarming is the fact that, as far as can be ascertained, so-called "shrink-wrap" license agreements have never been shown to be enforceable in a court of law. Thus, not only is it probably legal for you to make a backup copy of so- called "licensed software", but if the publisher omits to register the work with the Copyright office and submit two copies of the software to the Library of Congress, he may not even be entitled to attorney's fees and punitive damages even if he sues you for real dishonest copyright infringement. (If the publisher does register the work with the copyright office, it becomes a published work and it becomes impossible for the publisher to get any kind of trade secret protection, or enforce a prohibition against reverse-engineering. (There goes the software protection scheme!! -- A delightful dilemma for the software publisher.) Consult your attorney for specific legal advice, but make sure he doesn't consult for a software company. R.DHESI - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From Ted Mozer @ Brick **** DANGER !!!! Data Destroying Program !!! The file called SUG.ARC (or SUG.COM) is purported to be an unprotect for Softguard. It is, in reality, a real WORM of the worst magnitude! This little gem will ask you to put your ORIGINAL Softguard protected disk in the drive, and then BAM, it displays this message: "You have violated the license agreement under which you received the software. All your data has been destroyed. This destruction constitutes prima facia evidence of your criminal violation. If you attempt to challenge Softguard Systems, Inc. or the software vendor in court, you will be vigorously counter-sued for infringement and theft of services; we believe that our case will have more merit to it than yours. If you have any questions concerning this matter, you are invited to contact our lawyers at the following address: Softguard Systems Incorporated address and telephone number given -. FidoNews 4-46 Page 13 14 Dec 1987 We'll be happy to explain to you the precarious legal position you're in. We wish you good luck in restoring your software from backups and we hope that in the future you'll act more like an honest user and less like a thief. Happy Computing." ... AND IT IS SERIOUS!! It will look for drives A: & B: and, get this, a drive C: or better!! In other words, it will wipe out the FAT on your hard disk too, just to "teach you a lesson". Attorneys are presently looking into what can be done to stick this up the lower abdominal region of the person or persons responsible for it's existence. .. IF YOU HAVE IT, GET RID OF IT !!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Interesting? Here's one from the Atlanta PC User's Group BBS, home of the Lone Victor: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: 09-03-86 (17:14) Number: 3265 To: LONE VICTOR Refer#: NONE From: BILL MOSS Recv'd: YES Subj: SUG.ARC Sec'ty: PUBLIC MESSAGE Please take a look at SUG.ARC which purports to unprotect Softguard, but destroys the diskette by erasing all files but not the FAT. It appears to be in retaliation for your work. More than ever we need your help with SOFTGUARD 3.00. The lecture that goes along with SUG.ARC is too much!!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Assuming that Softguard really did create this file, we have the following comments. First, Softguard's battle (battle? You might prefer to call it terrorism) against protection busters is almost moot, for most major software publishers have dropped the idea of copy- protection altogether in favor of registered customer support. Perhaps this very fact has put Softguard's management in a mood bad enough to lash out thus. Second, Softguard's legal position seems quite shaky to me. Last year Vault corporation announced a software protection scheme that would, if it detected a fraudulent effort to copy the software, make "Vietnam look like a birthday party" (or some such thing) by planting a worm that would slowly but surely destroy the user's files. When Vault announced it's worm-based copy- protection scheme, many knowledgeable people expressed the FidoNews 4-46 Page 14 14 Dec 1987 opinion that Vault was likely to be liable for damages if people lost valuable data because of the scheme. What Softguard seems to be doing is definitely more vicious. Add together a probably unenforceable license agreement (to which Softguard isn't even a party as for as the user is concerned) and clear evidence of vicious attempt to destroy the user's data, and you have a pretty good case against SUG.ARC's creator. In fact, you could very easily create a test case by (a) taking a legally-purchased copy of Softguard-protected software; (b) unpacking it without ever reading the "license agreement" in a state other than the handful (such as Louisiana and Illinois) that attempt to make such agreements enforceable; (c) having some valuable software on your hard disk; (d) "accidentally" destroying any backup copy already provided; and (e) trying to make a backup copy of the original with the help of SUG.ARC. It would be interesting to see what would happen if you then sued Softguard for damages. Interesting, but not very surprising. We think therefore that the Softguard folks (if SUG.ARC did indeed originate from them) are relying on the individual not having the financial resources to sue them or to withstand a long legal battle if they sue him. It's therefore a strategy of intimidation. (As an aside: That such a strategy of intimidation could be a viable one demonstrates a major flaw in this legal system. Justice costs a lot, sometimes so much that one can't afford it. There are several reasons for this, all avoidable, but none appropriate for discussion in the message or under this topic.) How do users fight back? Perhaps we won't have to. It may be enough that the presence of this dangerous file be made widely known. Possibly as a result of the public outcry that followed it's announcement of the worm scheme, Vault went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- poetic justice, I think. This left Softguard with a near-monopoly on the software protection business in the IBM PC world. If the SUG.ARC file is indeed Softguard's creation, then it seems to me they are following Vault down the Yellow Brick Road (or is it the garden path?) -- and we look forward to more poetic justice when the public outcry occurs again. (As an additional aside: Don't rule out the possibility that an outside party has created this file. There are a number of people out there that do not like BBS's and do not like free exchange of information. These people have defined their goal in life to destroy all means of public information interchange, including and especially, the BBS environment!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 15 14 Dec 1987 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 9 Jan 1988 The next net 104 FidoNet Sysop Meeting. Contact Oscar Barlow at 104/0 for information. 25 Aug 1988 (pending BoD approval) Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnatti, OH. Contact Tim Sullivan at 108/62 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see you there! 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 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Things are VERY different in Region 18 There have been many changes and additions to the Nodelist in Region 18. Nets have been added, Net Coordinators have changed, Independent Nodes added and dropped, numbers changed, etc. If you haven't updated your Nodelist lately (and why haven't you?), please get NODELIST.345 and recompile your Nodelist. It may save you a few needless calls to non-BBS numbers. Nets 116 and 362 have NEW Coordinators and Host numbers. Get with it! We thank you. Christopher Baker Region 18 Coordinator ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.71* EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 FidoNews 4-46 Page 16 14 Dec 1987 Fido 12d* MakeNL 1.10 ARCmail 1.1* Opus 1.03a Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.2* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.84 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1* * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 17 14 Dec 1987 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________________ State ________________________________ Zip _____________________ Country _________________________________________________________ Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________ BBS Name ________________________________________________________ BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________ Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________ Board Restrictions ______________________________________________ Your Special Interests __________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in US Funds to: International FidoNet Association c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA 700 Bishop Street, #1014 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-4112 USA Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to insure the future of FidoNet. Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the membership in January 1987. The first elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-46 Page 18 14 Dec 1987 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we can make no written guarantees. Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986 IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ SUBTOTAL _____ IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____ Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member International orders include $10.00 for surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____ SUBTOTAL _____ HI. Residents add 4.0 % Sales tax _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS: International FidoNet Association c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA 700 Bishop Street, #1014 Honolulu, HI. 96813-4112 USA Name________________________________ Zone:Net/Node____:____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------