Volume 5, Number 35 29 August 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: 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 1988 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. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and are used with permission. 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 KeyChek -- "Agents" for OPUS? ............................ 1 Universal Mayhem(c) A real killer! ....................... 2 MENSA Echo Conference Grows Onto The Backbone ............ 6 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 7 Let's YACK about Getting Back Into FidoNet ............... 7 3. NOTICES .................................................. 9 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 9 International Medical Software Exchange .................. 9 NEW Region 18 REC! ....................................... 9 Latest Software Versions ................................. 10 FidoNews 5-35 Page 1 29 Aug 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= KeyChek -- "Agents" for OPUS? Bernard Aboba Fido 204/444 One of the biggest additions to my OPUS BBS was a mail checking program. Although I've gone through several of these by now, and am not satisfied with any one of them, it still strikes me as wonderful that upon logging in, I get a message telling which of the hundreds of messages OPUS receives every night are meant for me. Ok, so I'm easily satisifed. Not quite. I've been thinking of how to improve on mail checkers, and have come upon an idea that I think is both simple and powerful. It's the concept of a keyword checker. With KeyCheck, each user would have a set of keywords, say up to 10 or so. Every night, KeyCheck would go through the message base, and search for the presence of the keywords in the To:, and Subject: fields, or if specified, in the text of the messages. With the proliferation of gateway programs like UFGATE and GATEWAY, the Fido To: field is now often used as a gateway keyword, rendering conventional mailcheckers useless. With KeyCheck, users would still be able to check for their mail, by looking for references in the text of the message. I have thought about this, and it seems to me that KeyCheck ought to be feasible on an ordinary XT PC receiving say, 500 messages a day. With the advent of gateways, and the steadily increasing FidoNet traffic, it's time we started thinking about creating "agents" as part of FidoNet BBS's. I am posting this article in order to get a dialog going on the features that a KeyCheck program should have, and the enhancement of Fido systems with text search in general. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-35 Page 2 29 Aug 1988 Universal Mayhem(c) A real killer! Fredric L. Rice (103/503.1) Universal Mayhem is finally available for general Network consumption. There are only a few SysOps who know what Universal Mayhem, (UM), is so I'll give a very brief run- down on it here. Universal Mayhem is a Doors (tm) or Outside (tm) program which is basically a shoot-em-up type game in that those players with accounts constantly maintain a space ship in a universe and hunt and fight other ships, maintained by other players. Enemy ships are automated to fight back such that they are not "sitting ducks." Planetary commerce, subspace communication between users, the Galactic Police, black holes, remote robot sensors; these are some of the things that the current version of UM has to offer. Alliances between ships may be forged in that the two allied ships may not fire at each other If an alliance is broken, the Galactic Police get involved. If you attack an enemy ship, it will return fire with its torpedoes until they run out, (if they ever do). When no more torpedoes exist, the automated ship switches to phasers. While the battle is going on, the automated ship will attempt evasive which may result in the running battle from one side of the universe to the other, with the possible destruction of any planets that happen to be in the line of fire, (sorry, guys, happens all the time). When destruction seems to be unavoidable, the automated ship will attempt a random jump in any direction for the distance its class warp drive will permit, (you must buy higher classes of warp drives and even sell them to make profits to buy other items). A top-ten list is maintained, showing the top ten strongest ships and the top ten killers. You may name the planets, (a universe that is 8000 by 8000 sectors will have 64000 planets). It's considered unfriendly to battle a ship into submission, board it, then leave it drifting. It is much nicer to simply back off a sector and send them one last torpedo to finish them off. Subspace messages are sent to the FidoNet BBS system as one of the mail areas. This can be an echo mail area and will be used in the future to exchange subspaces messages across "universes." AREA:MAYHEM as a matter of fact... BUGS - - - Well, there are a few of these. They are NOT going to be FidoNews 5-35 Page 3 29 Aug 1988 fixed, partly because they are not destructive faults, and most importantly because the C version is soon to be released. The C version allows the maintenance of command files which tell a players ship how to act when various other ships are active. 'Run-From' this ship if he gets too close, 'Attack' this ship if he signs in, 'Assist' this ship if he attacks someone, 'Defend' this ship if he gets attacked. These are the various commands that the C version has. The C version also has corresponding white holes for the black holes in the universe. Entry into a black hole causes the exit at a known space in the universe where reentry into the nearest black hole will return a ship back to its point of departure. DISADVANTAGES - - - Universal Mayhem the current version requires a lot of disk space to run. Some 1 meg or 1.2 meg of disk space to have a universe some 8000 by 8000 sectors. The C version, which is soon to be released, will allow a universe of 32000 by 32000 sectors using 1 meg. Testing has shown that a universe of 64000 by 64000 is easily possible if space is available. WHERE, WHAT, WHEN - - - If you are interested in Universal Mayhem, The BASIC version, it is downloadable from Astro-Net (103/503), at 714-662-2294. If you wish, send me network mail along with a FidoNet address and I will upload it to your board so long as it is in the mainland United States. If you require configuration information, send me network mail. If you run Universal Mayhem, let me know through network mail so that I may mail you the C version when it hits its initial release. I'll mail a floppy free of charge. MAYHEM.ARC - (Downloadable) Universal Mayhem, the BASIC version Contains everything you need, including GATEWAY.ARC for the console redirection required. A sample config file is enclosed for a universe of 8000 by 8000. The allowable time to play and systems password is stored in the config file and will need modification. CUM.ARC - (Downloadable) C Version of Universal Mayhem (Document only) This file contains the documentation for the C version of Universal Mayhem. It details the functions in the source code and describes what they do. At the function level documentation, a complete description of the game is available. FidoNews 5-35 Page 4 29 Aug 1988 CUMCARD.ARC - (Downloadable) Business cards will be mailed to SysOps who run the C version of Universal Mayhem. This file describes the business cards and how to ask for them. I will mail cards free of charge to all SysOps so that they are distributed to their users also free of charge. The cards sport a really neat planet with a sword plunged into it surrounded with wheat stocks. The symbolism is described in this file. Cards are used by players to identify them as Mayhemites and will entitle them to nothing. UMSOURCE.ARC - (By mail only) The source code, congesting of two files, is not made available for general release. This is because of the FidoNet message interface function which can be miss- used. Also, Universal Mayhem represents a LOT of work which I want to sell. If you would like to obtain the source code, send me ten bucks in a check or something and I'll mail a floppy. The source is in Digital Researches Compiler BASIC and is some 200K or so due to the HEAVY use of in-line documentation. The code was originally intended for release into the Public Domain and as such was documented because of the need to allow modifications easily. The source is copyrighted and may not be redistributed. CUMSOURCE.ARC - (By mail only at a later date) The C version, written in C, uses linked-list structures and contains the kernel of a psudomulti- tasking environment. This is intended to automate the ships via command files that the players maintain. Because of the technology involved in the development of the C version, the source is not to be made available to the Public Domain, (the ships can even be made to move as a timed event from the FidoNet software). If you are interested in obtaining the source for the C version, I require fifty dollars for it as a check or something. I will require a written agreement, however, acknowledging copyright holding if you want the source to the C version. Eventually, C Universal Mayhem will allow the running of and the destruction of other ships sitting in other universes. The way this is to work is through network mail. A captain FidoNews 5-35 Page 5 29 Aug 1988 on Astro-Net may destroy a ship which is captained by a player on another node. At night the data differences are transmitted and both systems are updated to reflect the destruction. This can, of course, be turned off to seclude game play to one universe. - - - Universal Mayhem is, and as was intended, solely for the use of FidoNet people for the propagation of honest bloodletting. Beta testing has been underway for the last eight months and is available for evaluation at Astro-Net. This enables you, the SysOp and user alike, to run the game before spending the time of downloading it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-35 Page 6 29 Aug 1988 MENSA Echo Conference Grows Onto The Backbone by George Falcon, 1:109/648 Moderator, MENSA Echo Conference For about six months now, I've been keeping the FidoNet community aware of the growth of the MENSA Echo Conference since I assumed responsibility for it back in February. I've posted the list of systems carrying the conference in the hope that those of you interested in participating could find an easy link to the conference. An easy link is even easier now. A few weeks ago the MENSA Echo Conference went onto the national "backbone" of echomail distribution. At last count, there were 81 systems participating, far too many to list here. The conference is NOT restricted to member sysops or users, but is completely open, and serves as an interface between the organization and the FidoNet community. What is MENSA? Mensa is an international organization with only one requirement for membership - a performance on a standardized I.Q. test (or certain alternative tests, such as the CEEB, SAT, GRE, LSAT, etc.) in the top 2% of the general population. MENSA membership American Mensa has over 53,000 members, and another 15,000 members belong to national Mensas in many countries. There are Mensans in 98 countries throughout the world. MENSA's purposes 1) to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity 2) to encourage research in the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence 3) to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members "MENSA" defined Mensa is Latin for "table." We are a round-table society that makes no distinctions as to race, color, creed, national origin, age, or eco-nomic, educational, or social status. Only intelligence matters. MENSA organization American Mensa has about 130 Local Groups, located in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Chances are there's a local group nearby. For more information, write to American Mensa, Ltd. 2626 East 14th Street Brooklyn, NY 11235-3992 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-35 Page 7 29 Aug 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 7: Getting Back Into FidoNet Hello, friends of old and new. I'm back. I was on vacation for awhile (There are those who would say that I've been on vacation for a LONG while), but that doesn't account for the length of time I've been away. My last column was, of course, in FidoNews 5-15, way back in April. Here I am, over four months later, trying to pick up where I left off. Well, I guess I have some explaining to do. I'm sorry for abandoning the newsletter when I was just getting started on a regular column; I'm sorry for the MASS of EchoMail I generated in response to the 'Disincorporate IFNA' campaign; I'm sorry I allowed Node 128/31 to die this summer; and I'm sorry I can't attend FidoCon. Most of all, I'm sorry I didn't get my ballots off in time; I have not contributed well to FidoNet this year. However, EagleTech BBS is up again, with me as its new SysOp and such, though at time of writing I'm still waiting on Node reassignment. Thank you, FidoNet SysOps, for the times past when I was a user; thanks again for the short time I was a co-sysop and columnist for FidoNews; and thanks in advance for the fun times to come. Yes, FidoNet is fun; chatting with the users, and our local GENERAL echo in town gets loads of users from time to time when a discussion gets underway about copyright laws or the size of the sign outside of town; and direct overnight communications with both old friends and new ones found here in FidoNet is always a treat. (Hi Geof! I should be back in the NodeList soon.) With the fun comes the responsibility, however, to run the node with care; respecting other SysOps' needs in FidoNet; working out tech problems with them; helping new users get 'smart' on telecommunications basics; keeping the file and message areas clean; and contributing wherever there is a lack of true communication in FidoNet. I haven't gotten involved enough with FidoNet to say I've been a help. I guess it's time for a change. Well, I didn't vote, so whatever happens this year, like it or not, I have to face up to the fact that I did nothing to avert FidoNews 5-35 Page 8 29 Aug 1988 it. I guess the Net is in y'alls' hands, now. See ya' next week. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-35 Page 9 29 Aug 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Kaplan Medical Software Exchange 1:135/3 (1-305-325-8709) Software Trade: International Medical Software Exchange As sysop of a PC-Pursuitable medically related BBS, I'm interested in exchanging public domain medical software with computer users throughout the U.S. and in other countries as well. I currently have 5 meg of medically related software on- line and FREQ-able (contact me via netmail during NMH for my operating hours, which are variable). I'd be interested in trading software through U.S. mail with anyone who has interests similar to mine. Please contact me via netmail to work out the logistics of such a trade. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Christopher Baker Region 18 Coordinator 135/14 (18/0) 24 Aug 88 NOTICE: Region 18 has a NEW Region Echomail Coordinator. Jon Hall at 123/12 has taken over the duties of REC for Region 18. This change was not noted in this week's Nodelist due to late notice and the occurance of FidoCon V. The listing for 1/218 is NOT correct since it reflects the information for the previous REC 18, Jerry Cole at 123/2. Please update your system accordingly. The change FidoNews 5-35 Page 10 29 Aug 1988 in 1/218 should be reflected in Nodelist.246. 123/12 is set up will ALL of the Echo control files from 123/2. The Alternate Hubs in Region 18 are unaffected as of this writing. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90* EditNL 4.00* ARC 5.22* Fido 12h MakeNL 2.12* ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.31 SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86 EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M XlaxNode 2.10* MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 1.50 XlaxDiff 2.10* QuickBBS 2.01 ParseList 1.10 * 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 5-35 Page 11 29 Aug 1988 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Hal DuPrie 101/106 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Ray Gwinn 109/650 Vice President - Technical Coordinator David Garrett 103/501 Secretary Steve Bonine 115/777 Treasurer IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 102/732? Don Daniels 107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 11/301 Hal DuPrie 101/106 12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 147/1 13 Rick Siegel 107/27 Steve Bonine 115/777 14 Ken Kaplan 100/22 Ted Polczyinski 154/5 15 Larry Kayser 104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1 16 Vince Perriello 141/491 Robert Rudolph 261/628 17 Rob Barker 138/34 Steve Jordan 102/2871 18 Christopher Baker 135/14 Bob Swift 140/24 19 David Drexler 19/1 Larry Wall 15/18 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 107/233 -----------------------------------------------------------------