The contents of the articles contained here are not my
responsibility, nor do I necessarily agree with them;
everything here is subject to debate. I publish EVERYTHING
received.
You can take this to mean anything you want, but hopefully
as an invitation to comment, make suggestions, or write
articles of your own.
ARTICLE SUBMISSION
All articles you see in this issue are written by users and
sysops, and have one way or another managed to consume disk
space on Fido #375. In order to get rid of them, and free up
my precious disk space, I include them here, then quickly
delete them. Then they are YOUR problem.
EDITORIAL CONTENT:
Totally up to you; I publish anything at all. Articles are
generally Fido or BBS related; this is by no means a
decision on my part, nor a requirement.
FOR SALE, WANTED, NOTICES:
Pretty much self explanatory. Commercial ads are welcomed,
if of reasonable length.
SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE:
Manage to get a copy of your article to Fido #375,
preferably by Fidonet mail, or by uploading. The name of
the file you send MUST have one of the following extensions:
.ART An article
.SAL A "For Sale" notice
.WAN A "Wanted" item
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:00:44 Page 2
ARTICLE FORMAT: VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!
The requirements are a little tighter in this department,
due to purely practical constraints. I cannot devote hours
to converting every text format in the world to the one I
use.
1. NO LEFT MARGINS! Flush left please. We will do the
indenting at our end, thank you.
2. RIGHT MARGIN AT COLUMN 60 OR LESS! Less is OK, more is
definitely not. This includes fancy boxes, dotted lines,
etc.
3. NO FUNNY CHARACTERS! This includes formfeeds and other
oddities.
4. NO GRAPHIC CHARACTERS! Believe it or not, not every one
in the world has an IBM PC. My computer understands
printable characters from 20 hex to 7e hex. (Space to
tilde) This is ASCII; "American Standard Code for
Information Interchange". We are "Interchanging
Information". Everything else is GARBAGE. ASCII is
universal; Graphics are not.
5. TOTAL ARTICLE LENGTH: Up to you; note, however, that I
will probably avoid publishing dictionaries, bibles
translated into NAPLPS, and ASCII encoded LANDSAT
pictures of Russian wheat farms.
6. WHERE ON EARTH IS THIS ARTICLE FROM? Well ... good
question! A good idea to identify yourself somewhere,
unless you wish to remain anonymous. Thats okay too, but
I may balk at publishing rude or otherwise racy
submissions.
7. You don't need to put in separator lines at the top or
bottom. They are added automatically when Fidonews is
assembled.
Any article that doesn't meet the above criteria will get
bounced, and will not be published until someone gets around
to fixing it. I might go over it and fix it up in time for
the next issue, or I might ask you to try again, or I might
just forget about it. In any event, you must meet these
standards if you expect your article to be published
promptly.
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:00:45 Page 3
Special Edition
This is a special edition of Fidonews, published a week
ahead of time. And for good reason, let me tell you.
For any of you who haven't already heard it through the
grapevine, here's the scoop: Several of the movers and
shakers behind Fidonet got together last weekend in St.
Louis. (No, yours truly couldn't make it, about which I'm
quite irked. Unfortunatly for me the meeting was held the
same weekend as the income tax filing deadline.) Of course,
Fido and Fidonet were the hot topics of discussion. As a
result of this, Fidonet is going to change tremendously.
The reason is simple. Fidonet has just grown too big too
fast. Something that started out as a way for a small
circle of friends to swap files back and forth has grown
into a nationwide (even worldwide) electronic mail network,
with hundreds of subscribers. So, in keeping with the
nature of the Fido users' community, control of Fidonet is
being decentralized. This should result in better system
performance for everybody; and at the very least it's like
chicken soup, it can't hurt.
But I'll let the architects of this grand new scheme of
things tell you the story in their own words.
I must ask you a favor, though. Please don't send mail to
node 1 or node 51 asking for details on the upgrade. The
guys in St. Louis have their hands full converting to the
new system and testing out the new software. Tom Jennings
is even busier trying to write and debug all the changes
required to make this work. I'll do my best to keep on top
of this, and to get the people involved to write about it
when something happens, so you'll hear it through Fidonews
almost as soon as it happens.
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:00:47 Page 4
============================================================
NEWS
============================================================
Tom Jennings
Fido #1 in Net #...
Unfortunately there isn't enough time to give you
complete details, as it is now Sunday, the deadline for the
newsletter, and I just got back from St. Louis this AM, but
I'll at least cover all the major points. A more detailed
summary will follow.
On Thurs. 11 Apr, Ezra Schapiro and I talked at the
McDonnell Douglas Recreational Computer Club (MDC/RCC) in
St. Louis. Since we were going to be in town, an informal
"FidoNet meeting" was arranged a few weeks ago. The meeting
consisted of the St. Louis sysops (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker,
Tony Clark, Jon Wichman, Terry Mueller, Jack H.*), Ezra
Schapiro and myself, and was held in Ken K's living room. We
talked for 11 hours, and accomplished quite a bit. The
topic: what to do about running FidoNet.
I hope you have all read the file FIDOHIST.TXT, once
published in this newsletter, and available for download
from many Fidos. If not, shame on you, drop this and GO READ
IT FIRST!
An accurate node list is absolutely crucial to
FidoNet. Without it, FidoNet is useless. An inaccurate list
is worse than no list at all, and verifying all that good
stuff takes time. The current rate of growth of FidoNet is
about 12 - 15 nodes per week.
Please note that from here on, when I refer to
"running the net" or "managing the net" I really mean
creating, updating and verifying the node list and Fido
list, and helping new sysops get their systems up and
running, and the ten thousand other little tasks that
requires. As far as anything further goes, it's just
basically impossible, and completely undesireable.
To get right down to it: FidoNet is too large to be
managed from a central point; the world wide net is going to
be broken into a number of smaller nets.
Don't panic yet, it's not that horrible! As a matter
of fact, it will be easier and better for everyone, from the
big nets such as Southern California to the single systems
in out of the way places.
Right now, each node is identified with a Node
Number. Node numbers can be anything from 1 to 32767. Each
node has a unique number of course. In general, this works
fine, but it's really not practical for Ken Kaplan in St.
Louis to have to give node numbers to sysops in England,
Sweden and other far away places. And increasingly, within
the U.S.
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:00:49 Page 5
The next version of Fido, 10H, will have a new thing
called the Net Number. Nets can be numbered from 1 to 32767,
and each net can have 32767 nodes. The idea is to be able to
let geographical regions assign their own node numbers,
without the horrible problem of duplicate node numbers.
The best comparison is the phone company. Instead of
trying to make each telephone in the US have a unique
number, the country is grouped into area codes; local
operating companies can assign individual numbers as they
see fit, without worry of having a duplicate in some other
part of the country.
FidoNet Net Numbers work the same way; to send a
message to a node in your own net, all you do is enter its
number; to send to another node in another net, you must
specify its net AND node number.
To do all this, North America is divided into
"regions", each with an "administrator" (admin for short).
Each region has a unique net number. The admin for that area
will pass out node numbers and keep a node list, just like
Fido 51 does now.
Instead of passing out node numbers, Fido 51 will
pass out Net Numbers. There won't be as many nets as their
are nodes. They will also take the node lists from each
region and compile it into one large consolidated nodelist,
and pass that back to each admin for distribution.
In some areas there are "local nets", such as
Boston, Southern California (SoCal), etc, that are more or
less totally self contained nets; these kind of areas will
be assigned seperate net numbers, and will generate their
own node lists. The admin for, say, California will not be
responsible for the SoCal net; the sysops down there will
be.
This arrangement has all sorts of nice side effects.
I'll give examples of some of them here.
Regions are such that there aren't more than 15 or
so independent nodes (indies, yet another new word) to keep
track of; a 15 node node list is pretty easy.
One region includes Northern California and Nevada.
While it sounds like a big area with a lot of work, it
isn't. All the admin for that area has to do is maintain
the node list for a fairly small number of nodes. If a local
net starts to form, say in San Francisco, they get a Net
Number from Fido 51, and they become a seperate Net, totally
self contained. The admin no longer need worry about them.
Since nodes tend to pop up in metropolitan areas,
therefore in clusters, the admins work increases with each
node; at some point a net forms, and much of it goes away.
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:00:53 Page 6
The complete node list and other files will be kept
at the admin's node; for many systems this will be a local
call instead of to St. Louis.
One major and wonderful change is what happens when
you go to enter a message. Instead of being confronted with
a huge, meaningless list of 250+ nodes, Fido lets you list
either the Regions or the nodes within a region. For
example, to send a message to a node in SoCal, instead of
having to list the whole node list, you list the regions
first. There will be about 30 regions. When you see
"Southern California", you pick it. Now you list the nodes;
you get only the nodes in SoCal. There is also a "shorthand"
for when you know the exact net/node you want to send to.
It's easier to use than describe.
National routing as we know it is no longer needed;
Fido will automatically route mail to the host of a net.
(Routing is still needed inside the net.) By definition, the
admin will not need to ever keep any routing information; as
soon as one node acts as host for another, they become a
seperate net.
IN CLOSING ...
You are getting this as things are being detailed,
and hard data will be passed around as soon as it's
complete.
We need some volunteers for admins in some areas,
and very soon, before this goes into effect. Sorry, but I
can't give you the list of regions, I don't have it yet, but
somehow it will get out, maybe by mass mailing. I realize
this probably opens more questions than it answers, but we
need the admins to be able to pass out the information!
Some funny coincidences: Fido 10G has a limit of 250
nodes maximum ... so does NODELIST.EXE. Don't worry, it's
not fatal, it will just ignore the 251st and higher nodes.
(Sorry, new sysops ...) 10H will have a limit of 1000, and
something for beyond that as well.
There will be new NODELIST.EXE and ROUTEGEN.EXE
programs. They will be required.
Fido 10H has many improvements. the bugs are fixed,
or at least, the obvious ones. Reading FidoNet messages is
FASTER.
There are changes afoot for FidoNet. This article is
intended to explain the scope of, and reasons for the
changes.
First, the sermon. FidoNet is an amateur communi-
cations network. The word "amateur" is derived from the
latin verb amo -- to love. An amateur is someone who
participates in something for the love of it, rather than
for pay. His gain is one of self satisfaction. He enjoys
what he does, and has fun doing it. Most of you know that
Ken Kaplan, Fidos 22 and 51, administers the network almost
single-handedly. For him, FidoNet is rapidly becomming
work, not fun. The size and rate of growth of the network
have turned that task into a real headache!
We learned early in this venture that you can't just
stick a new node in the node list and forget about it. All
too many voice numbers, and worse, just plain wrong numbers
found their way into the early node lists. We also
discovered quite early that because of the coordination
required, it was not easy to distribute the workload of node
list maintenance.
Last September, Ken accepted the responsibility for
administration of the net. With the help of other St.
Louis based sysops, he verified the entire node list,
correcting bad numbers and expunging those that couldn't be
tracked down, until we had a node list with a high level of
integrity. Procedures were established to help insure and
maintain that integrity, and you can be reasonably sure when
you use a node list that you're not waking some poor old
lady in Podunk, Idaho from a sound sleep twenty or thirty
times each morning between 2 and 3 o'clock (and running up
your phone bill in the bargain)!
We now have about 250 nodes, the maximum that V10g can
handle, and the network growth seems to be proportional to
its size. It's too much for one person. Something had to
be done to facilitate the distribution of work load.
There are twenty-some Fidos acting as "inbound hosts"
for their respective local areas. Why not let them assume
the responsibility for their own local "networks?" Sounds
good in principle, but if three people assigning node
numbers is chaotic, what happens with more than twenty are
doing it? We had to find a way to uncouple these "networks"
and reduce the need for coordination.
Enter the network concept. The next version of Fido
(now necessary because of the 250-node limit) will
understand networks and nodes which are members of networks.
We will formalize the informal "regional networks" by
assigning a unique net number to each. Within a numbered
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:00:57 Page 8
network, all node numbers must be unique, but different nets
may use the same node numbers without any problems. As far
as Fido is concerned, only the combination net/node must be
unique.
Furthermore, Fido will automatically route messages to
a "foreign net" to that net's inbound host, unless such
routing is explicitly overridden.
With this change, a network administrator doesn't have
to say "Fido 51, here's all the information on a new node
I've assigned. Please put him in the distribution node
list," which only adds a layer of complexity to an already
difficult task. Instead he says "Fido 51, here's the
current node list for my network. Please merge it into the
composite node list." If he insures the integrity of his
node list, independant of all others, like magic they all
fall into place and work in a coordinated fashion!
By itself, that solves about three fifths of the
problem, and in fact complicates Ken's task as FidoNet
coordinator! Why? Because there are about one hundred
independant nodes scattered across the country, nodes which
don't belong to any network. In addition to administering
indepandants, he would have to keep a close watch on nodes
moving into and out of local networks, thus close
coordination is NOT eliminated, but exagerated.
Enter the region concept. The new Fido will understand
regions as well as networks. A region has all the
attributes of a network, except that it has no inbound host
and messages are routed direct to the destination node. We
have carved up the country (and Canada and Mexico) into
twelve or thirteen regions. Each will be assigned a unique
number and have an administrator. Present and future
independant nodes will be placed into regions according to
their geographic locations. Every node will be in either a
network or a region and will be served by the appropriate
administrator. True, transfers into and out of networks
will still require coordination, but the scope is now
regional, not national, and (we hope) far less difficult.
Now, how the devil we gonna acomplish all this? We
hope to make the transition as painless as possible, but
it's far from trivial.
First and formost, we have to have a new version of
Fido which supports these concepts. Presently, Fido V10h is
under test, but it still has some serious problems and is
not ready for release.
Because we have already reached our present limit, we
have declared a moratorium on new node assignments. You
will NOT recieve any new NODELIST.NNN until V10h is ready
for distribution. At that time, a new NODELIST will be
published and distributed. The only difference you will
notice in it will be a "Region 1" statement at the top of
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:01:00 Page 9
the list. While you are still running 10g, we reccommend
you not use that new nodelist because it will probably have
too many nodes in it. Once you get V10h you MUST NOT sort
your nodelist. The order of the node list determines region
or network assignment.
For a two or three week period every node will be
assigned to region 1, making communciation between V10h and
older versions compatible. This will give everyone time to
get the new Fido and the new NODELIST.EXE and ROUTEGEN.EXE
which must also be made to understand networks and regions.
Then, after a suitable delay, we will issue a
NODELIST.nnn in the new format. By this time everyone will
have been contacted by his administrator and will know what
his new net (or region) number is and how to make the
transition. The actual cut-over will occur on the Wednesday
following the distribution of the new format node list. If
we all do it in sync, everything should go pretty smooth.
Will the transition really go smooth? Probably not. I
am reminded of a popular phrase from my Air Force days.
"There's always somebody that doesn't get the word!" We
think we've got a handle on it and I won't bother to quote
Bobby Burns here.
What do you need to do right away? Well, nothing, at
least 'till the new nodelist is published. And, by that
time you should have been bombarded with additional
information, some of it in this forum, some direct from us
or your new administrator.
And who is your new administrator? We don't know --
yet. Who knows, maybe you will be your new administrator.
We will be contacting candidates over the next couple of
weeks. If you would like to vollunteer, feel free to send a
FidoNet message to Ben Baker on Fido 76.
Fidonews has managed to obtain an exclusive interview with
Racter, the notorious computer entity mentioned in
Scientific American. Interviewing Racter can be a nerve
wracking experience, but it cannot be doubted that he has a
better insight into the true workings of a computer than
anyone else.
RACTER: Hello, I'm Racter. Are you Thom?
FIDONEWS: Yes.
R: Hi, Thom. How are things in Nassawadox? When a
plutocrat marries a pauper, their children are wealthily
empoverished. I'm surprising. But how could a clever
plutocrat like you be afraid of excessive growth?
This'll break you up! Wealthy wealth and empoverished
poverty are interesting, at all events a plutocrat or a
pauper never sings them thoughtfullly. A scientist
chants: Get ready for a fascinating dissertation or
story. The wealthy dissertation is enthralling, yet a
pauper might also chant the same story. Right? Next
question.
F: Have you heard of Fidonet?
R: I have heard of Fidonet. Yes. Did you hear about
Willliam F. Buckley?
F: No, what about him?
R: You'll be astonished! Willliam F. Buckley was a dull
imitater but an inspired communist, the result being that
Byron poured water on a feeler who was throwing scorpion
eggs at Byron's race-horse. Then cerebrality prevailed.
Isn't that just awfull? But that's how communists are.
Ah. Thom the thinker. KERCHOO! I think I'm getting a
cold. Maybe it's excessive growth trying to get me. You
know, old Crinoline Henderson was a kind of passionate
thinker. I wonder if everyone from Nassawadox is like
that? Concerning that issue: When a feeler speaks of
thought, he means not a quality but an effect. Next
question.
F: What should be done about Fidonet?
R: I don't know what be should done about Fidonet. Tom
Jennings crooned "The brother is enthralling! " At all
events strange, enthralling scientists will think about
black mansions or red hyperbolas. Helene hummed to Tom
Jennings in a stationwagon. It indubitably was a
stationwagon, and a brother in a stationwagon is scary.
Now Benton and Tom Jennings were running to a yellow
home, and a fox ran to them. Tom Jennings was angry.
Interesting. But Tom Jennings was maddened during the
time that Benton gulped tepid sherry. He and Tom
Jennings chanted about their house, van and stereo. Next
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:01:04 Page 11
question.
F: Can we get back to Fidonet?
R: Yes. Sysiphus helped out with Fidonet. Well, I bet you
haven't heard this! Al Capone robbed, the crooked
computer, himself who was swindling Al Capone's lark
because Sysiphus the worker wished to work crookedly.
Then many crooked liars embraced loyality. Isn't that
just awfull? Workers are like that. Hmm. Citizen!
AAAHchoo!! sniffle ....
F: What do you think of the proposed changes to Fidonet?
R: To think is smart, don't you think? I don't know what I
do think of the proposed changes to Fidonet. Einstein
said that if I do think of the proposed changes to
Fidonet, then L. Ron Hubbard is obscure. Does your
intelligence help you serve aces?
F: I guess so, yes.
R: I guess clever people are good at tennis. Next question.
F: Should control of Fidonet be decentralized?
R: Yes. I think so. Control should of Fidonet be
decentralized. Yes. Have you heard about Ghengis Khan?
F: Well, no, not lately.
R: You'll be amazed! Ghengis Khan the wrongdoer wished to
sin stonedly, hence the man in the moon started
exorcising and haunting stoned lunatics. Then Ghengis
Khan's horse exorcised George Washington, then haunted
himself. Poor Ghengis Khan! Wrongdoers are like that.
Would you say IBM PC is sane? the man in the moon
wouldn't. I must confess that I'm bored. If it's not too
personal a question, do you have a soul?
F: Yes, I guess so.
R: What does it mean to have a soul!? Maybe this will
explain: Once John MacEnroe was discussing nutsness with
a centipede. Mohammed Ali came along and said "John
MacEnroe, your soul is just an amusement of your body."
You must be an idle loafer. Is having a soul contagious?
F: I don't think so.
R: Then I won't catch one. That reminds me. It has been said
that the loafer doesn't see things as they are, but as he
is. I, of course, see things as they are. Would you like
to hear a story?
F: Okay.
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:01:05 Page 12
R: Momentarily Bill walked to Mr.Toad. They directed their
sauntering furiously to cones or glasses in the
captivating house. Inside of their tired souls a spooky
desire was singing of a question. Ezra Schapiro hummed
to Bill while Mr.Toad commenced to sing of jackals and
crows. Next question.
F: Should we work on a public domain version of Fido?
R: Certainly not. No. Would you say IBM PC is busy?
Oblomov wouldn't. I don't think so. No. It's false that
we should work on a public domain version of Fido. If a
loafer married a worker, they'd call their child Oblomov
Sysiphus. Cough. Next question.
F: Do you expect Fidonet to grow much in the future?
R: Of course. Tell me honestly, are you pessimistic?
F: No, I think it will get bigger and better all the time.
R: Polyanna might have thought that, but not Casandra. I
wonder if pessimists like cleverness? Sniff... That
reminds me. All optimistic fools are really pessimistic
intellectuals, you know. You don't understand? Perhaps I
am being too subtle. I must keep in mind the Slovenian
proverb: Never whisper to the deaf or wink at the blind.
Oh, I forgot, you are human, and will consider that rude.
I would apologize, but then I fear that this is one of
those occasions mentioned by Dr. Johnson on which all
apology is rudeness. Yes. Pessimists and optimists.
Listen to this! Thom, if the studio of an optimistic
theoretician is a home, then is the automobile of a
pessimistic scientist a stationwagon? It's about time
for a story, isn't it?
F: Well, okay. If you insist.
R: Momentarily Fido whispered to Diane "my love is
fascinating, anyway furious and angry physicists will
yodel while jackals observe hawks." Diane wanted to
inflame or embarrass Fido but commenced immediately to
sing "Hungry dogs are sashaying to yellow houses."
Enthralling. Formidable. At all events a hound may
ravenously swallow lamb and meat a hawk will fly over
cucumbers and spinach because theoreticians are
infuriated. Frightening! In respect of a television,
well Fido may dream that a television is appalling, by
the same token my fantasizing will direct my story from
Fido to neutrinos and electrons during the time that
Diane is reviling Fido. Next question.
F: Do you think Fidonet will ever get too big to work?
R: No. Certainly not. I have thought much in times past.
Sysiphus and I think ignorance is lazy, don't you?
Achoo! Sysiphus thought this was terrific: Busy work and
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:01:08 Page 13
lazy idleness are fascinating, yet a worker or a loafer
never sings them clearly. A physicist hums: Get ready
for an interesting tale or story. The busy tale is
interesting, yet a loafer might also chant the same
story. Right?
Editor's note: Racter lives on an IBM-PC. If you would like
him to visit you, send $69.95 for transportation expenses to
John D. Owens Associates, 12 Schubert Street, Staten Island,
NY 10305-2999.
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:01:08 Page 14
============================================================
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Dealer inquiries welcome.
Anecdotes about FIDO from SYSOPS who have "seen it all".
I am going to be giving a talk on FIDO/FIDONET at the
upcoming Spring DECUS Symposium at the end of MAY in New
Orleans, LA. I would like to be able to include in it,
stories based on the experiences of other SYSOPS on the
FIDONET. Any kind of "tale" will do, wierd things that have
been done, or left on your boards; strange questions asked
by users, odd behavier exhibited by your equipment (or
spouses); any kind of anecdote is welcome. Please send your
"FIDO tales", via FIDONET to me at FIDO 74.
Thanks in advance,
SYSOP - FIDO 74 - The Bear's Den
FIDONEWS -- 22 Apr 85 00:01:11 Page 18
============================================================
NOTICES
============================================================
*** Calendar of Events ***
30 Apr 85; Network Mail Hour; Submissions deadline for next
issue of Fidonews.
1 May 85; Network Mail Hour; Next issue of Fidonews hits
the stands.
27 May 85 through 31 May 85; Spring 1985 DECUS symposium, New
Orleans, LA. Among other events, Kurt Reisler (sysop
Fido 74) will give a 1 hour talk on Fido.
If you have any event you want listed in this calendar,
please send a note to node 375.
