Volume 6, Number 40 2 October 1989 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Dale Lovell Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings 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. 1:1/1 is a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. Copyright 1989 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. We don't necessarily agree with the contents of every article published here. Most of these materials are unsolicited. No article submitted by a FidoNet SysOp will be rejected if it is properly attributed and legally acceptable. We will publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Are the leaders members? ................................. 1 Directions for IFNA ...................................... 4 SeaDog to BinkleyTerm under TBBS ......................... 7 More on Mike Ratledge and Hurricane Hugo ................. 10 FidoNews: What IS Its Purpose ? .......................... 15 A reaffirmation of FTSC protocol standards ............... 18 2. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 20 Latest Software Versions ................................. 20 3. NOTICES .................................................. 23 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 23 FidoNews 6-40 Page 1 2 Oct 1989 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= ARE THE LEADERS MEMBERS (or putting ya money where ya mouth is) (Bob Moravsik 269/107) In SYSOP and FN_SYSOP the question of "where's the IFNA membership list has arisen. I know I brought it up. Two lists have surfaced: 1. The Calloway list, available from Ross Calloway 267/41 It is dated 6/29/89, contains 162 names, node numbers and BBS names. "Cal" list IFNAMEMB 2. The Vietch list, this is the official list of members as of 9/21/89. It contains 132 names, node numbers and membership expiration date. "Vie" list Available from Kris Vietch 147/30 IFNAMEMB Comparing the two lists yields the following: A. 114 people are on both lists B. 48 people are on the Cal list but not on the Vie list C. 17 people all paying dues after 6/30/89 are members but not on the Cal list. 1 paid dues before the date of the Calloway list. Since Mr. Vietch is the official in charge of the list the Vieitch list is the IFNA list. The first question that comes to mind is which list was used for voting at FIDOCON. Minutes are silent. Taking these findings and "overlaying" them on the list of IFNA Officers and BOD members yields the following. OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Thom Henderson 1:107/1015 Chairman of the Board A member, name on both lists Les Kooyman 1:204/501 President Not a member, name not on the any list Fabian Gordon 1:107/323 Vice President Not a member, but name on the Calloway List Bill Bolton 3:3/0 Vice President-Technical Coordinator FidoNews 6-40 Page 2 2 Oct 1989 Not a member, name not on the any list Kris Vietch 1:147/30 Secretary A member, but name not on Calloway list Kris Vietch 1:147/30 Treasurer A member, but name not on Calloway list IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION 10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732 Neither list 11 John Rafuse 1:12/700 Member, not on Cal list 12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Neither list 13 Fabian Gordon 1:107/323 Not a member, on Cal list 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Member, both lists 15 Scott Miller 1:128/12 Member, both lists 16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Not a member, on Cal list 17 Kathi Crockett 1:134/30 Member, both lists 18 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 Not a member, on Cal list 19 Kris Vietch 1:147/30 Member, not on Cal list 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 Neither list 3 Matt Whelan 3:54/99 Neither list AT-LARGE 10 Don Daniels 1:107/210 Member, both lists 11 Phil Buonomo 1:107/583 Not a member, on Cal list 12 Mark Hawthorne 1:107/238 Neither list 13 Tom Jennings 1:125/111 Neither list 14 Irene Henderson 1:107/509 Member, both lists 15 Steve Jordan 1:206/2871 Neither list 16 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 Member, both lists 17 Dave Melnik 1:107/233 Neither list 18 Jim Hruby 1:107/536 Neither list 19 Burt Juda 1:107/528 Neither list 2 Karl Schinke 1:107/516 Neither list 3 John Roberts 1:147/14 Member, both lists Summary- Bod 9 listed as members, 15 not listed as members 13 on at least one list, 11 not on either list Officers 2 listed as members, 3 non members 3 on at least one list, 2 not on any list Conclusion: Well the numbers speak for themselves. This BOD which FidoNews 6-40 Page 3 2 Oct 1989 has a majority of non paying members is trying to decide the destiny of people who put their money where their mouth is and supported IFNA. Especially these 17 whose vote may not have been counted. Clarification: The information in this article was tabulated on 9/24/89. Three days after the date on the official IFNA list from Kris Vietch. To those people who have "checks in the mail" I apologize. To those officers and directors who haven't paid their due. Well...this was the purpose of this article. IFNA needs funding. Bob Moravsik 269/107 (Paid up member, on both lists) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 4 2 Oct 1989 Thom Henderson, c/o 1:107/583@FidoNet Chairman of the Board, IFNA Directions for IFNA I've finally managed to locate chairmen for all of those committees. The list still looks a little sparse because not everyone has given me final confirmation that he'll do it, but at least the critical committees are off and running. The two most critical are, of course, Nominations & Elections and Bylaws & Rules. Nominations & Elections was the single hardest, because nobody I spoke to wanted to do it. First I asked Steve Bonine, but he turned it down for "political reasons" (unspecified). So then I asked Bob Hartman, but he said he was too busy, what with the new baby and all. Then I asked Vince Perriello, but he said he was too busy, period. Then . . . Well, you get the idea. Finally I went back to Steve Bonine and told him that he had the worst excuse, so would he please do it? Actually I'm condensing quite a long phone call here. I think it was when I threatened to hold my breath until I turned blue that he realized how much I really wanted him to do it. To make a long story short, he agreed. That means that he's the one who will be figuring out how to run the election for the "YPOP resolution". He assured me that he'll be getting on it quickly, so you should be seeing something soon. I also managed to browbeat John Roberts into handling Bylaws & Rules, which is the committee that will be drafting the proposed new IFNA bylaws and the proposed new FidoNet policy document. He, too, promised to get going quickly, and I'm sure we'll be seeing something from him very soon also. You should be seeing at least a draft Policy statement well before the referendum deadline. So, now that we are starting to go somewhere, where should we be going? More specifically, what should IFNA do? As I see it, there are five main functions that IFNA is needed for: 1) Hold the nodelist copyright and ensure nodelist integrity. 2) Sponsor FidoNews and hold its copyright. 3) Sponsor the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee. 4) Sponsor the annual FidoCon. FidoNews 6-40 Page 5 2 Oct 1989 5) Provide a democratic voice for FidoNet sysops in matters of network management. The first four, at least, are very passive things. It doesn't take a whole lot of sound and fury to hold a copyright -- all it takes is legal existance (which people and corporations have, but FidoNet does not). Even the fifth should be mostly passive, at least as long as everything is okay. So on a day-to-day basis, IFNA shouldn't really be doing much of anything. We don't need it so much to DO things, as to MAINTAIN things, to HOLD things. By and large IFNA shouldn't be DOING much, except to resolve problems. But there are problems. Three in particular, at the moment. One is the lack of a mandate for IFNA itself. That's what the referendum is all about, and Steve Bonine has that well in hand. The second problem is that IFNA needs a better set of bylaws than it has at the moment, which is what John Roberts is working on. His opinion is that we should get a stock set of 501(c)3 bylaws from a lawyer and go from there, which I think is an excellent idea. There are a few things I'd like to see in the IFNA bylaws, though: 1) All FidoNet sysops should be entitled to vote. 2) There should be no dues, either to vote OR to be in the node list. 3) We need a bit more flexibility in replacing people who aren't getting the work done. This is the bane of all volunteer groups, and it's silly not to have some way to deal with it. 4) We need a greatly simplified election procedure. You should see the hassle that past Nominations & Elections committees have had to deal with to tally a Board election. The other problem is the widespread lack of acceptance of Policy4, which John Roberts is also working on. When (and if) IFNA gets its mandate we'll be running another referendum on that policy document so YOU get to decide if you like it or not. But what sort of policy should FidoNet have? I've given a fair amount of thought to this recently, and I've come to the conclusion that presence (or absence) in the FidoNet nodelist should be based on strictly technical grounds. So there are sysops who are annoying. Big deal. Life is full of annoying people. Let the other networks be social clubs -- FidoNet should be a phone book. FidoNews 6-40 Page 6 2 Oct 1989 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 7 2 Oct 1989 SeaDog to BinkleyTerm under TBBS 2.x Single Line Brice Fleckenstein, Sysop of 1:231/190 27 September 1989 If you don't run TBBS, feel free to skip this article. I've had a few requests for this information, so here's the logic behind how I run BinkleyTerm as a CM front end for TBBS single-line. I am NOT going to get into the politics of WHY - I've been through that mess too many times already. If you run TBBS multi-line, you have to run non-continuous, just like under SeaDog, due to the nature of multi--line TBBS. Or you can wait for the upcomming Mail Option Module like the rest of us. This article should still work for you, but I can't verify it personally. I am going to make a couple of assumptions: (1) You have a working TBBS/SeaDog system (2) You know how to read the docs to set up each individual program mentioned below as required. ........... BinkleyTerm - this is your mailer ............ Set up BinkleyTerm as desrcibed in the BinkleyTerm docs. The ONLY critical options under TBBS are that you MUST use the BBS Exit option, NOT the Spawn or Batch options. If you want to use the Overlay version of BinkleyTerm, you can do one of the two following options: (1) Copy BT.EXE to MAILER.EXE, and put BOTH in the same subdirectory with TBBS.EXE and TBBSDVR. (2) Patch the MAILER.EXE text in TBBS.EXE to " BT.EXE". I used option 1 with 2.0s, I am currently using option 2 with 2.1s as I just haven't gotten around to patching TBBS 2.1s (yet). You can use the BTBIG version of BinkleyTerm by simply Renaming it to MAILER.EXE and placing it in the TBBS.EXE subdirectory. BTBIG uses about 25K more RAM or so than the overlaid version of Binkley. .......... X00.SYS - FOSSIL driver for BinkleyTerm ........... I use X00 version 1.08 or so for that very simple reason - it works. You may want to use a different FOSSIL if you run a HST or a MNP-capable modem - my bare-bones 2400 isn't pickey. You can leave X00 on while TBBS and TBBSDVR are loaded - they either use it, or ignore it, and I haven't seen anything work differently with it installed as far as TBBS is concerned. FidoNews 6-40 Page 8 2 Oct 1989 ....... ConfMail - this processes your Incomming mail ........ I use ConfMail 4.0 because it works, and is a LOT faster than any of the ArcMail versions I tried (0.6 through 1.x). It's actually VERY simple to set up. The critical part for ConfMail with TBBS is to set up only ONE Echo entry in ConfMail's AREAS.BBS file, and label it PASSTHRU. This echo directory should point to PostMail/PreMail/ EchoScan's Net Mail directory. As this is where all those itty-bitty little *.MSG files go, this directory should optimally be placed on a disk drive/partition with a SMALL cluster size - I use 1K clusters, for example. You can also set up a Bad_Msg directory, if you wish, but it should point at a DIFFERENT directory, not the PASSTHRU directory. I happen to use PAK 2.10 as my de-archival tool - this is not a critical decision, your choice may vary. .......... OMMM - this processes your Outgoing mail ........... OMMM was the first thing I ran into that worked for my Binkley\TBBS setup - it's fast enough on the relatively little amount of mail I have go out that I never bothered thinking about replacing it - though I have upgraded to the newer versions, from 1.07 to 1.40. It's installation is not critical at all - you tell it to take it's input from your Net Mail directory, and put it's output in the Binkley specified Hold directory, just like the normal OMMM installation says to do. I use PKPAK 3.61 with the -otc switch as my archiver - your choice of archival tool is up to you, OMMM couldn't care less. ..... ParseList - BinkleyTerm and TBBS Nodelist Processing ..... As space isn't critical on my system, I keep both a full Version 6 NodeList for BinkleyTerm, and a NodeList.DOG-style TBBS NodeList. I happen to use ParseList to generate both, despite the known "offset" bug in ParseList with TBBS. All of my derived Nodelist files peacefully coexist in the TBBS subdirectory - there is NO overlap in files. You can put the Binkley-related nodelist wherever you feel like, as long as you tell Binkley where they are, Binkley doesn't care. I'm just too lazy to change a basically working system. Now that Bob is running TBBS, he has some personal incentive to fix ParseList (Bob, are you paying attention? 8-) ). FidoNews 6-40 Page 9 2 Oct 1989 ............................................................... At this point, you should have a working system. I use some other utilities as well, but they're not needed - more like extra "flash" - though AMAX has proven VERY usefull. To speed processing time up, I do many of the "old" tricks - RD then MD my *.MSG directory before each use, automatic daily MFSQZ my deleted and/or old mail before running either EchoScan or PreMail, use the 2.1 Net Mail /remember option. If you want to look at the actual mechanics, or would like some examples, I have a file available for FREQ or download called ALLBATS - I think it's currently PKPAK .ARC format, but it may be PAK format by the time you call. I DO allow users download access on the first call, if the FREQ doesn't work - the file is in my BBS file section, and I think it's between 7 and 8 K long. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 10 2 Oct 1989 Here's some more information on Mike Ratledge's situation, from FidoNet Echomail: Date: Sun Sep 24 1989 18:40:00 From: Ed Meloan To: All Subj: HUGO and Mike Ratledge ------------------------------------------------ Just got a call from Mike Ratledge. The earlier reports were, unfortunately, pretty accurate. Mike and his wife had gone to his father's house and were not injured. Mike's house and =ALL= his belongings were not so lucky. The house was =COMPLETELY= destroyed right down to the foundation! They lost all their clothes, furnishings, and computer equipment. Mike described finding their refrigerator (which had taken 3 men to get into the kitchen) several hundred feet from where the house had been! He said that was the heaviest piece of furniture they owned and just about all they found. He mentioned that his wife was picking up anything personal they could find and putting it in a tin can. It's hard to imagine the total devastation that they found. I mentioned that we were setting up a fund to try and give them some financial help and he asked me to express his appreciation since they are currently in pretty poor financial condition. The insurance will not cover anything except the structure because the damage was NOT caused by wind but was water damage from the storm surge. I told him that I would set up an account tomorrow (monday) and we could try to channel something his way in the next few days. Of course, he lost all his personal computer equipment as well. The system that belongs to the company he works for apparently came through ok =BUT= they will not have electricity for at least 10 days to as long as 3 weeks!! It would appear that Mike will not be able to communicate through FidoNet for several days at least. Several folks have sent NetMail to this system and I am holding it for Mike until he can pick it up. Folks... I know that Mike has many friends across region 18 and the rest of the country. He's helped a lot of folks and now we have a chance to show our appreciation. If you can spare a contribution, please send a check to: Augusta Forum Mike Ratledge Fund 1110 Terrace Circle Drive North Augusta, SC 29841 Please make the check out to the MIKE RATLEDGE FUND. I will acknowledge ALL contributions in SYSOP18 and will also keep a running tally here. Mike could use the help =NOW=!! FidoNews 6-40 Page 11 2 Oct 1989 Thanks.... Ed Meloan (Net 360 Coordinator) Date: Mon Sep 25 1989 10:52:00 From: Ed Meloan To: All Subj: Mike Ratledge Fund ------------------------------------------------ I have just returned from talking to my bank about setting up an account to handle donations to Mike Ratledge. Our bank branch manager suggests that we make the checks payable to MIKE RATLEDGE. Then Mike should open an account down in Charleston and I will be able to deposit the checks here in North Augusta, SC and he can withdraw the funds down there. None of the banks in the Charleston area are open yet but they should be back in operation by the time your checks begin to reach here. I'm anxious to help Mike, as I know of number of YOU are but the lack of communications and electricity are making it difficult to do much. I think our best bet is probably to do as suggested and have you make the checks payable to Mike Ratledge rather than the "Mike Ratledge Fund". If you have already sent a check to the Mike Ratledge Fund, I don't really think we'll have a problem since we are marking them "For Deposit Only". If you haven't yet written one, please just use Mike's name. I just spoke to Mike's brother and he asked me to tell everyone how much they appreciated our interest and support. The mailing address for donations is: Augusta Forum Mike Ratledge Fund 1110 Terrace Circle Drive North Augusta, SC 29841 I will keep all of you informed as things develop. Date: 28 Sep 89 21:58:00 From: Mike Ratledge To: All Subj: Unofficial Hugo Report... ------------------------------------------------ The Unofficial Hurricane Hugo Report Well, folks - to say I'm lucky to be alive would be a gross understatement. I came within 24 hours of the center of Hugo! FidoNews 6-40 Page 12 2 Oct 1989 Hugo hit dead center and came right through the jetties in Charleston harbor. Most of the whole county, plus a path 50-30 miles wide between here and Charlotte, NC was decimated. Everything is bad - but things north of Charleston are by far the worst. I used to live near a little sleepy fishing/shrimping village named "McClellanville" - that town basically no longer exists. Over 90% of the structures within a mile of the ocean are just plain gone - period. I made a very wise decision at 11PM the night before Hugo hit to take my wife, cat and dog to my fathers house - some 50 miles south of where I lived. That decision saved all of our lives - no question about it! We got up early the next morning (the 'cane blew through about 11PM to 2AM) before the police and National Guard got their stuff together to keep people from getting around - other areas - like the beaches are under marshall law even now (and will be for weeks - no bridges to get out there). What we found, after climbing over trees stacked 6-8 feet deep for over a mile to get in was truly sickening. My houses (I lived in one, and ran a "Bread and Breakfast" type thingy out of the other called "Kingfisher Cottage") were hit by a 20 foot storm surge (tidal bore) and there is absolutely nothing left - not even the foundations of either house. We can only even tell where the heck the front house was by the concrete slab that was under the garage and kitchen area. There used to be a small subdivision of about 15 big, well-built 1/4M$ homes on 14' piers about 1/2 mile away - there's nothing left of them either - just a few black broken matchsticks where the pilings used to be. Right now, I'm still in shock I guess. I'm in a good frame of mind - there's not much left to cry about... The first couple of days, I guess we were all running on adrenalin - at this point, it's wearing thin and patience is running out. Frankly, if I see another idiot driving up a one-way street the wrong way, gawking and saying "gooooolly - thar's another wun" I might just shoot the bastards. It's bad enough without adding to the confusion! What we do need down here is clothes - most of the people that lived in my area were of small means, and many have absolutely nothing left - just like me. Almost none of them had the Federal flood insurance, and if you read the fine print of your homeowners policy, you'll find you're not covered for "rising tides, floods, crashing waves or tidal waves" or some similar wording. The feds will rebuild your house, but won't replace any of your toys - you can't buy flood insurance for the contents period. If you can aid the relief effort by sending clothes, please get in touch with your local Red Cross and tell them it's for "Hugo relief". FidoNews 6-40 Page 13 2 Oct 1989 Fortunately, I did buy it - the bank gave me no choice in making the loan. I will get back about $90,000 for the houses, which I have to invest in rebuilding on the property, or the bank will keep it to pay off the value of the portion of the loan that no longer has any collateral (i.e. the two houses, pumphouse, party palace/shed and tobacco barn.) Unfortunately, it also means I lost everything but the clothes on my back, with no hope for any repayment. I understand I'm eligible for small business loans for both businesses I ran out of the houses (the other is my "DESCU" computer consulting gig) with no interest, so I can probably swing a decent 'puter replacement, and I have several "spare" parts laying around the office that will be pressed into service. Right now, I am living next door to my office in a company owned building we call the "Ruscon Hilton" or "Taj Mahal II". It's really pretty damn nice, four big rooms with fancye carpet and builtin mahogony cabinets, etc - in an old Charleston home. Since I'm right next door, I've got access to all the computers I need for now! Also unfortunately, the tape backups I had are destroyed, too - they were in the second floor attic of the back house, which was built up a little higher than mine. I don't even have the source-code for about 100 programs I've written, although I *do* have XRS, QMX and a couple others I was piddling with at the office when noone was looking. I hiked in again yesterday and carried my computer and 2nd ST4096 drive out - they were filled with salt-water and plough mud - don't really see much hope of recovering anything off them, but I'm sure as hell going to give it a good ol' college try! Power was restored here at the company downtown yesterday. It comes and goes every once in a while when they kick in another transformer, which really makes the computers just happy as h*ll, but it's better than 100% darkness which prevailed for four days. I now have all three mailer nodes of East Bay X-Change back online as of about an hour ago (somebody got a little overzealous when I said "disconnect the Ethernet cable in addition to the power" ... Still have about 10 workstations that I haven't gotten back onto the network. Anyway - it's been one heck of a ride. I know I've received a lot of mail that I cannot take the time right now to personally answer each and every one, but I wan't to thank each and every one of you that provided help - Ed Meloan is heading up a "Ratman relief fund" and right now - it's the only thing carrying me through this mess! Even if I can get a no-interest loan to replace the computer, all my other appliances, stereo, clothes and what-have-you are AWOL forever. I'll bounce back, but it's going to take time - a *lot* of time! FidoNews 6-40 Page 14 2 Oct 1989 If you'd like to help out there, he's taking the checks and depositing them directly into my bank account, or you can now get them directly to me at my new temporary address: 151 East Bay Charleston, SC 29401 I don't have a voice number for my the Ruscon Hilton yet - we're trying to figure out what the last number on the rotation is so I can program the "night ring" over there and only get calls that are really for me - right now, I get Ruscon calls at all hours of the night, so I've got the volume down to zero. You *can* reach me here at the office - 803/723-9861 during business hours - I'll post the real number soon. Again - thanks to all of you for the support in my time of need. It's rough - but the only way to look from ground zero is up, and I've still got a smile on my face. Don't know if it means I'm dumb or insane, but either way, I'll make it! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 15 2 Oct 1989 FidoNews: What IS Its Purpose ? Doug Hall Sysop, OnLine New Hampshire 1:132/111 Dear Editor: In a few months I will be beginning my 4th year as a sysop of a FidoNet node. My BBS is one of those systems out at the end of the branch of the FidoNet tree that reaches in this direction. I poll long distance to receive mail every night. Once a week I get FidoNews in the mail. I have dutifully unarchived it and perused it each time. As yet I haven't found much of use or interest to me. Recently there have been a lot of unintelligible polemics about network egos and politics. Useless. There have been articles about veterinary medicine. Useless. There have been articles about some sort of computer education awards program. Useless. This week an essay on the issue of flag-burning. Useless. Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying these communications are useless in content - it's just that our network newsletter seems to be the wrong place for them. Then there is the list of latest software versions which has been getting longer and longer. Unfortunately the list doesn't mention what each package does, who might benefit from it, what it replaces, or where it can be obtained. Useless. There is a weekly list of the same upcoming events. For how many weeks do I need to be told that a new area code is forming in Illinois or Massachusetts? Useless stuff. The last few pages each week are taken up with a lengthy list of IFNA volunteers and a form for becoming a member. Useless. As I contemplate paying the long distance charges to receive each week's issue, I have been asking myself "What is the purpose of this newsletter?" Does anyone have an answer to that question? A newsletter which is being sent to all sysops should remember its audience. Articles should be on topics of interest to that audience and should be written to be understandable by the audience. Rather than just gripe, I'd like to make a few suggestions for the editor and the writers of articles for FidoNews. EDITORIAL POLICY SUGGESTION #1 - As any jounalist will tell you: NEVER USE ABBREVIATIONS OR JARGON without explaining them the first time you use them. It took me nearly 6 months to figure out what a *C might be (and even now I'm not so sure). The backbone? NTSC? OPCNLIST? Each issue contains a pack of new abbreviations and terms which the writers evidently assume everyone understands. Is this "in group" jargon used to put everyone off, to prove that the author is a FidoNews 6-40 Page 16 2 Oct 1989 super-techie, or what? It would only add a few words to each article to make it understandable. Each writer (and the editor) needs to ask "How can I write this article so that the new sysop that just joined FidoNet yesterday will understand all my terms and references?" EDITORIAL POLICY SUGGESTION #2 - Stop repeating the same information every issue. The calendar of events could be trimmed to include only NEW items or only items within the next 4 weeks. The IFNA Board and membership stuff could be included in the first issue of each quarter. The latest software versions could be included in the first issue of each month. The masthead could certainly be simplified to a couple of lines. EDITORIAL POLICY SUGGESTION #3 - Articles published should relate to the common network interests of sysops. I can receive plenty of other (print) pubications on veterinary medicine, Vietnam vets, or computer learning month but I have no other source of information on FidoNet as a whole, running a FidoNet BBS, etc. Similarly, articles and notices related to a singular and specific echomail conference or publication (e.g., kidsnews) should be relegated to that conference. What would happen if each and every echomail conference in the system decided to publish its "news" in FidoNews? I would rather receive a SHORT FidoNews than pay long distance charges for one stuffed with articles irrelevant to our shared context. EDITORIAL POLICY SUGGESTION #4 - Articles should not be allowed to allude to or hint at communications outside of FidoNews itself without adequate explanation. If the writer of an article read something in an echomail conference, or received a netmail message that is important for the other sysops to know about, then it ought to be quoted or summarized. Too many articles seem to be based on conversations or communications about which the FidoNews reader has no knowledge. The main offense seems to be in regard to unnamed echomail conferences which some sysop/authors evidently frequent and somehow assume that all sysops must therefore frequent. If there is to be a second channel of shared communication, such as an echomail conference, then we ought to be clear about that. Maybe we should preface FidoNews with a "Warning: articles in this publication are based on ongoing messaging in XYZ echomail conference and assume that the reader has access to and reads all such messages." FidoNews 6-40 Page 17 2 Oct 1989 EDITORIAL POLICY SUGGESTION #5 - Don't publish software upgrade information without explanation. One of the major shared interests of the net's sysops has got to be the software that lets the network exist in the first place. If a totally new piece of software is worth listing the author ought at the very least to supply an explanation of what is is, what it does, what other software it is comparable to or can replace, who should consider using it, where it can be obtained, etc. If a new version of a previously listed item is released, the author ought to provide an explanation of the new features as well as summarize the overall purpose it serves. What are Lynx, PRENM, TPBNetEd, TMail, Prune, XRS, ZMailQ, Tally, Mantissa, RMB, or Paragon anyway? Does ANYONE know? They've got to be important enough to explain, especially since they are supposed "to verge on necessity" even to get listed. Thanks for considering these suggestions and comments. I'd be interested in your reactions and those of other end-of-the-line sysops. Doug Hall, 1:132/111 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 18 2 Oct 1989 Chris Irwin, 1:18/68 Joaquim Homrighausen, 1:135/20 Vince Perriello, 1:141/491 Bob Hartman, 1:132/101 We're here to tell you about a problem we've been having. On a pretty regular basis, changes seem to crop up in other mailer software. These changes, which are meant to improve operation of these products, have an affect on the way that these other programs communicate with ours. Often, while accomplishing the desired effect when communicating with similar programs, the changes have a negative effect on mail sessions with our software. Far too often (in our opinion), our software is blamed for the problems. What's more, there just aren't any kind of rigorous documents that describe the integration of these "enhancements" into the state tables which describe TSYNC-initiated sessions. In the absence of this information, we have spent a lot of time trying to reverse engineer our code to theirs. The effect of the aforementioned changes is that we are constantly implementing to a moving target. What we wind up with is usually close to the mark. Even so, there seem to be some phases of the moon during which it doesn't work quite right. So far, we're only talking about a minor nuisance. But lately some of the problems have reached the level of POLICY complaints. This occurred most recently when BinkleyTerm 2.30 was released. A problem occurred with a session which was using SEAlink Overdrive, in this case with a SEAdog 4.50 system. The SEAdog user was plenty irate that he was having this problem, and let most of the *C structure and FTSC know about it. Never mind that our software is perfectly compliant with the base protocol. SEAlink Overdrive, an "enhancement", wasn't working right. Mail wasn't getting through. So a complaint was filed against Bob, Vince and the FTSC. It took a long night of work and some careful diplomacy to cool things off. This kind of problem is why we need standards in FidoNet. Why Thom Henderson, Tom Jennings, Ben Baker, Randy Bush, Phil Becker and Bob Hartman spent that time in the famous "New Hampster" meeting. Why Randy spent all that time and effort documenting the results of that meeting (and several previous meetings) into the definition of FidoNet's base protocol, the FTS-0001 specification. And this kind of problem is the reason we have to remove the offending code from our software until a standard describing these "enhancements" accurately and in adequate detail has been written, tested and approved by both the original authors of these changes, and by FTSC itself. FidoNews 6-40 Page 19 2 Oct 1989 We admit it. We made a big mistake. We tried to support these "enhancements" without having enough documentation to do it right. This forced us to reverse engineer stuff. There are still problems. These problems sometimes interfere with mail delivery. That leaves us with no choice in the matter. We have to remove our "enhancements" and sit back and wait for a reasonable spec. We can work to the spec when it exists, if our marketplace demands it. Therefore, our mail products will be re-engineered for strict adherence to FTS-0001 and FTS-0006. "Enhancements" will be removed in favor of reliable communications using these standard protocol methods. We also call on FTSC to aggressively pursue the authors of these "enhancements" and get a working group on the job of documenting them. This might mean that, in the short term, a few people will encounter difficulties when communicating with less compliant products, or relying on some "enhancement" which has been removed for the sake of reliability. However, in the long term we'll wind up with much more compatible, reliable software. We're honestly sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause our users. But we know that this is the proper decision, based upon actual feedback from many of you. On October 12, we will be releasing new versions of our software with these changes. We expect that once you can see results from the process which we are trying to set into motion, you will be as enthusiastic about it as we are. Thanks for listening. And thanks a lot for honoring us by using our software. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 20 2 Oct 1989 ================================================================= LATEST VERSIONS ================================================================= Latest Software Versions MS-DOS Systems -------------- Bulletin Board Software Name Version Name Version Name Version Fido 12n+ Phoenix 1.3 TBBS 2.1 Lynx 1.30 QuickBBS 2.04 TComm/TCommNet 3.4 Kitten 2.15* RBBS 17.2A TPBoard 5.2 Opus 1.03b+ Wildcat! 2.00P Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version BinkleyTerm 2.30* EditNL 4.00 ARC 6.02 D'Bridge 1.21 MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 2.0 Dutchie 2.90C ParseList 1.30 ConfMail 4.00 FrontDoor 2.0 Prune 1.40 EMM 2.02 PRENM 1.47 XlatList 2.90 GROUP 2.15* SEAdog 4.51A XlaxDiff 2.32 LHARC 1.13 XlaxNode 2.32 MSG 3.3 MSGED 1.99 PK[UN]ZIP 1.01* QM 1.0 QSORT 4.03* TCOMMail 2.2 TMail 1.11 TPBNetEd 3.2 UFGATE 1.03 XRS 3.0* ZmailQ 1.09 Macintosh --------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Red Ryder Host v2.1b3 Tabby 2.1 MacArc 0.04 Mansion 7.12 ArcMac 1.3 WWIV (Mac) 3.0 StuffIt 1.51 TImport 1.331 TExport 1.32 FidoNews 6-40 Page 21 2 Oct 1989 Timestamp 1.6 Tset 1.3 Timestart 1.1 Tally 1.1 Mehitabel 1.2 Archie 1.60 Jennifer 0.25b2g Numberizer 1.5c MessageEdit 1.0 Mantissa 1.0 PreStamp 2.01 R.PreStamp 2.01 Saphire 2.1t Epistle II 1.01 Import 2.52 Export 2.54 Sundial 2.1 AreaFix 1.1 Probe 0.052 Terminator 1.1 TMM 4.0b Amiga ----- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Paragon 1.00+* BinkleyTerm 1.50 ConfMail 1.10* ChameleonEdit 0.10 RMB 1.30 Atari ST -------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailer Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Star-Net 2.00 BinkleyTerm 1.03g ConfMail 1.00 EchoDoor 0.11 ParseList 1.30 GS Point 0.61 ARC 5.21 FoReM Door 1.00 TurboArc 1.1 LHARC 0.40 PKUNZIP 1.00 MSGED 1.96S SRENUM 6.2 OMMM 1.30 Timestop 1.00 FidoNews 6-40 Page 22 2 Oct 1989 + Netmail capable (does not require additional mailer software) * 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 6-40 Page 23 2 Oct 1989 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" 11 Oct 1989 First International Modula-2 Conference at Bled, Yugoslavia hosting Niklaus Wirth and the British Standards Institution. Contact 1:106/8422 for more information. 11 Nov 1989 A new area code forms in northern Illinois at 12:01 am. Chicago proper will remain area code 312; suburban areas formerly served with that code will become area code 708. 23 Nov 1989 26th Anniversary of "Dr. Who" - and still going strong 30 Dec 1989 Telephone area codes (5, 3 and 0) are abolished in Hong Kong If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 24 2 Oct 1989 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Thom Henderson 1:107/583 Chairman of the Board Les Kooyman 1:204/501 President Fabian Gordon 1:107/323 Vice President Bill Bolton 3:3/0 Vice President-Technical Coordinator Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Secretary Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Treasurer IFNA COMMITTEE AND BOARD CHAIRS Administration and Finance * Board of Directors (CoB) Thom Henderson 1:107/583 By-laws and Rules John Roberts 1:385/49 Executive Committee (Pres) Les Kooyman 1:204/501 International Affairs * Membership Services * Nominations and Elections Steve Bonine 1:1/0 Public Affairs * Publications Irene Henderson 1:107/9 Technical Standards Rick Moore 1:115/333 Ethics * Security and Privacy * Grievances * * Position awaiting confirmation by appointee. IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732 Don Daniels 1:107/210 11 John Rafuse 1:12/700 Phil Buonomo 1:107/583 12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Mark Hawthorne 1:107/238 13 Fabian Gordon 1:107/323 Tom Jennings 1:125/111 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Irene Henderson 1:107/509 15 Scott Miller 1:128/12 Steve Jordan 1:206/2871 16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Kathi Crockett 1:134/30 Dave Melnik 1:107/233 18 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 Jim Hruby 1:107/536 19 Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Burt Juda 1:107/528 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 Karl Schinke 1:107/516 3 Matt Whelan 3:54/99 John Roberts 1:147/14 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-40 Page 25 2 Oct 1989 __ 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 PO Box 41143 St Louis, Missouri 63141 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 second elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. FidoNews 6-40 Page 26 2 Oct 1989 -----------------------------------------------------------------