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.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
Career Advice via Fido (we need your advice) ............. 1
Greetings from the New Zone 1 Coordinator, David Dodell .. 2
P/S 2 Compatible Available October 11, 1987 .............. 4
What's Up at SEA? ........................................ 5
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 9
Origin: Angevin Empire ................................... 9
3. NOTICES .................................................. 11
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 11
Latest Software Versions ................................. 11
4. COMMITTEE REPORTS ........................................ 12
Ben Baker resigns as International Coordinator ........... 12
FidoCon V -- Where's It Gonna Be? ........................ 13
FidoNews 4-38 Page 1 5 Oct 1987
David Hart
CareerPath BBS
Node 107/117 - (212) 696-9777
NEED CAREER HELP?
Want to change jobs?
CareerPath BBS is a non-commercial, public interest BBS spon-
sored by Cary Hart Associates; a national Management Consulting
and Executive Search Firm.
CareerPath BBS provides a number of free services now and will
add more in the future.
1. We provide counseling in resume writing, interview skills and
career direction via our message base. One of our message areas
provides for anonymous entry if desirable.
2. We accept uploads of resumes in complete confidence.
3. We are interested, in the near future, of providing a CAREERS
echo. This is dependent upon Network Sysop interest.
4. We advertise some help wanted. Some of this is via the Metro-
Forum Echo of net 107. When we place an "ad" in Metro-Forum, we
typically we do not have an economic interest in filling the
position. We DO have an economic interest in positions posted on
the system (non-echoed). However, because we NEVER accept fees
from candidates, we consider this activity to be non-commercial.
We need user and network feed-back to make this unique system
viable and of maximum assistance to all. We operate at 300/1200
and 2400 bps, 24 hours/7 days.
You may file request (via FIDO) "INFO.ARC" which provides comp-
rehensive information about CareerPath as well as the correct
procedures for uploading resumes. Locally, this file is avail-
able for download from file area #3.
Our staff responds to SERIOUS help inquiries within 48 hours!
Hello, as most of you already know, I have resumed the
responsibility of Ben Baker's position as Zone 1 Coordinator,
better known as 1/0. I assumed Ben's position last week, after
Ben resigned his position in the network due to burnout.
First, to tell you all about myself. I am dentist by profession,
married, and have two wonderful dogs named Keesha and Max. I
live and practice in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona and have been the
sysop of the St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center BBS for the
past two years.
I am new to this position and will need some patience from the
network. I would like to make several comments about my position
after only being in it for a few days:
(1) There might be a delay of a day or so initially in getting
out the NODEDIFF. I expect to issue it Friday evening
initially. It will be available by Seadog File Request (aka
FR) with the file name of NODEDIFF and NODELIST. FidoNews is
also available using the FR name of FIDONEWS. Using these
"key" words will always give you the most recent issue.
(2) I have received numerous complaints, policy disagreements,
etc. via the grape-vine, Ben Baker, and Ken Kaplan. First a
little patience is needed in expecting an answer. I am
averaging 15 messages a night so far. I want to give each
one my undivided attention, but I also need to devote time to
my practice and family. I VOW that I will answer every
single message, but please understand that most of them will
be routed back as normal netmail, and may take some time in
getting to you.
(3) If you sent Ben a message over the past month and did not
receive a reply, please send it again to me. Several
messages and requests were lost in the transfer of
responsibility.
(4) FLAMES will get you no where. I will be glad to engage in
rational constructive converstation and criticism, but flames
and name-calling will cause me to think less of any arguments
or points you are trying to make.
(5) PLEASE TRY to work out problems within the framework of
POLICY3. This states that the chain is to contact your
network host, then regional host about any decision before
contacting me. If I receive any mail before it has gone
through the chain, it will be immediately be referred back
down without any decision.
FidoNews 4-38 Page 3 5 Oct 1987
(6) The Help Nodes in Region 1 are being restructure to provide a
better support structure for the network. If you have any
suggestions or comments, please let me know. I am also
working on getting all the Echomail Backbones listed in the
Region 1 nodelist, so everyone will know who their local
Echomail regional coordinator is, in order to facilitate
linking of new echos.
Remember, to most of the network, including myself, this is a
hobby. Try to work out problems locally, compromise and the
network will be better for all of us. Take a deep breath, and
have FUN !
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
===============================================
On Sunday October 11, 1987 at the Grand Royal Hotel
in Hempstead, New York, will be another spectacular
KGP computer show.
What makes this show different from ALL other shows
this year will the introduction of the FIRST PS/2
compatible computer named the QT/2 which will be
available at the show for demonstration, evaluation
and purchase.
The QT/2 is made entirely in the United States, and
does not face the import tariff currently being levied
against other compatibles made in the Far East.
Standard features of the QT/2 include 3 Megabytes of
memory on the motherboard, both a 3 1/2 inch floppy
drive and a 1/4 height standard 360k floppy allowing
easy transfer of software to/from either format. Both
serial and parallel ports are included as well as a
light pen port and a game adaptor port and the display
adaptor as well. A 250 watt switching power supply is
standard with a 300 watt supply available as an option.
The QT/2 allows hard drives of up to 120 Megabytes to be
installed and operated as a SINGLE drive without the use
of device drivers.
All current CGA, EGA, Monochrome and VGA display units
will operate on the QT/2. Several expansion boards have
been tested and perform to specifications.
The base price of the unit will be $995. This includes
3 Megabytes of memory and the two floppy disk drives
as well as the serial and parallel ports, the game
adaptor port, the display adaptor and an enhanced AT
style tactile touch keyboard.
The unit is covered by a 12 month warranty and service
can be obtained nationwide from over 1300 repair centers.
We thought we'd fill you in on what's cooking at SEA these days.
First, the bad news.
The free SEAdog upgrade offer to FidoNet sysops will end on
October 30th, 1987. After that date SEAdog upgrades from 4.0 to
4.1 will cost $10. Just in case you missed our earlier
announcement about the upgrade offer, we'll repeat it.
If you have a copy of SEAdog 4.0 that is now operating as a node
on FidoNet, we will upgrade you to version 4.1 at no charge
(until October 30th). To get your free upgrade, please do the
following:
1) Write your name and your network address on your SEAdog 4.0
disk label.
2) Write your name and mailing address on an adhesive label or
on a floppy disk mailer.
3) Mail them both to us at 21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470, and
we'll mail you back a 4.1 disk. We will include a sheet that
describes what's new in version 4.1 of SEAdog.
If you wish to upgrade a SEAdog 4.0 that is NOT now operating as
a node on FidoNet, then enclose $10. If you wish to upgrade any
earlier version of SEAdog, then enclose $50.
Now that that's out of the way, what else is going on?
We've tinkered with the MGM system a bit. Mostly fine-tuning and
touchups. Most of the utilities now make SEAdog log file entries
at the VERBOSE level.
ARCmail 1.10 is now available, and is significantly enhanced over
version 1.00. We've added an "overflow area" that keeps incoming
mail archives from blowing away your network mail area. For
example, we've noticed that PC-DOS starts getting real slow when
you have more than about 280 files in one directory on our
system, so now we run ARCmail with a statement like:
arcmail from all /o150
This tells ARCmail that any time the netmail area hits 150
messages, everything else goes in the overflow area. We then
tell MGMfwd to create 100 messages per pass, and hence never have
more than 250 message files in the netmail area.
Messages that are shunted to the overflow area are not lost
(would we do that to you?) The overflow area is essentially a
FidoNews 4-38 Page 6 5 Oct 1987
"first in, first out" queue that ARCmail manages for you.
We've also expanded the naming convention in ARCmail 1.10. The
convention used by earlier versions was only good for ten
archives per day over a span of one week. Nowadays many sysops
(including us) want to run a mail relay event every hour
(sometimes even every half hour) with mail events in between to
deliver mail to nodes near them. The older naming convention
could get you in real trouble doing that, since you could easily
create more than ten archives per day for a given node. The new
naming convention is fully backwards compatible, and is good for
an archive every minute over a span of a month.
The new SEAlink driver with Overdrive is now available. As
before, full sources for the driver are provided. We're hoping
that this second release of the SEAlink routines will be as
popular as the first was. For those who can't wait for
Overdrive, we've included an upgraded CLINK.EXE protocol driver
that can now be fully configured by command line switches,
including selecting the baud rate, COM1 or COM2, and setting
Overdrive.
For the non-techies out there, "overdrive" is an ACKless
"streaming mode" that greatly enhances SEAlink throughput on the
current crop of 9600 baud asymmetrical or half duplex modems,
like the Courier HST, the Telebit Trailblazer, and the Microcom
AX-9624C. Overdrive should only be engaged at baud rates greater
than 2400 bps.
There is FINALLY a new version of DTTY available, and this one
even has docs! That's a big step for DTTY -- we thought she'd be
a NODOX program forever. If you've never heard of DTTY, then you
may want to give her a try. DTTY is a terminal program,
something like Minitel and nothing at all like Telix. Just plain
ol' type at yer modem stuff here; no fancy menus, no sound
effects, no glitter. So why bother? A couple of reasons. (1)
Some of us actually LIKE plain-Jane terminal programs. (2) DTTY
can do SEAlink with Overdrive. (3) Here's the biggie: DTTY uses
the SEAdog configuration and data files, including the node list!
You can tell DTTY things like:
dtty call Gee Wong
and she'll go look up his net address, find out his phone number
and baud rate, and start dialing. This alone can make DTTY
worthwhile, even if you'd rather not use her as your terminal
program. You can shell out to her from another terminal program,
have her dial whoever you want to call, and then pop back.
This version of DTTY also introduces an experimental "split
screen mode" for those of you who like to chat with other users
on a multiline TBBS. Everything except the split screen mode is
done through DOS calls or FOSSIL calls, so DTTY should work on
any system that can run SEAdog.
FidoNews 4-38 Page 7 5 Oct 1987
All SEA shareware products can be downloaded from our customer
support board at (201) 473-1991, or outside of National Mail Hour
may be file requested from 1:107/6. The relevant filenames to
request for products mentioned in this article are:
MGM*.ARC The MGM conferencing system.
MGMARCM.ARC The ARCmail mail compression program.
SEALINK.ARC The SEAlink protocol driver.
DTTY.ARC The DTTY terminal emulation program.
Other SEA shareware products include:
SLAVE.ARC Allows giving DOS commands to a system by network
mail.
KITTEN.ARC A minimalist bulletin board system for use
with SEAdog.
USNO.ARC Sets your system time and date by calling the
U.S. Naval Observatory.
XLATRGEN.ARC Translates the St.Louis format nodelist into a
file suitable for use with SEAdog, Fido, or Opus.
SCRIPTER.ARC A preliminary script driver that lets SEAdog
version 4.1 use version 4.0 script files.
SDOPT.EXE A program that allows setting some extended
options for the SEAdog MAIL program.
USR called the IFNA office this week and asked us to pass
along the following special offer for SYSOP's:
USR has lowered the SYSOP price for the original Courier
2400 and Microlink 2400 to $289. Call 1:115/500 which is
USR's board in Skokie, Ill. and complete the online
questionaire to place an order. If you have purchased
one of these modems in the past three months at the old
SYSOP price of $325, USR has offered send you a rebate.
Call USR at 800-DIALUSR and ask for Chandra for further
information on rebates.
Ken Kaplan
1:1/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(Note: I have changed nets since the previous three columns
were submitted. Please take note of the new address.)
Are you one of the countless millions who are glad that all
the hoopla about the Constitution's 200th anniversary is over?
Or are you one who's interest was piqued by the information that
was circulating? If the latter, I suggest you find a copy of
_Miracle at Philadelphia_. _Miracle at Philadelphia_ is an
account of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention,
with many quotes but placed in 18th century contexts. Catherine
Drinker Bowen tells a good story, and I have read this book over
and over since I first discovered it seven years ago.
* * *
In the SYSOP echomail there has been a lot of talk of late
about shrinking the size of the node list. Ideas such as no
longer having separate HUB and HOST entries, deletion of private
nodes, and many other things have been suggested. All of these
are good ideas and ought to be considered. We could split (and
apparently are splitting) the nodelist into lots of different
pieces, but that will sacrifice capability. None of these is
really a good solution.
The fact is that there are some 1600 accessible nodes in the
nodelist, and this number increases every week. It's not going
to go away -- and even if all the duplicates were zapped out,
we'd be right back where we are now in a couple of months. Just
think what will happen when someone invents a utility that lets
non-Fido compatible BBS programs (RBBS-PC or PC-Board) join the
Matrix and carry echomail conferences. I'd guess that a large
number of those systems would join if their favorite software
let them. I think this will happen pretty soon.
So, we are looking at expansion in the near future, and the
uncompressed nodelist is likely to hit 400K or 500K very soon.
In my opinion the best way to solve it right now is to rewrite
the nodelist.
That's pretty long -- 81 bytes, including the end-of-line
markers. But if you look at it, not all of that stuff is really
necessary to be a list of nodes. One of the first principles of
FidoNews 4-38 Page 10 5 Oct 1987
the Matrix -- I always thought -- is that the purpose of the
nodelist is to be a list of nodes, and not a BBS list.
All that is needed in a list of nodes is _how to reach the
node_. That means that the name of the BBS is not really
relevant to the purpose of the nodelist. It doesn't matter that
my BBS is called "The Angevin Empire" if all someone in Arkansas
wants to do is send me a message saying "That was a really
stupid column!", or ask one of my users about that program he
wrote. All that person should care about is how to reach me.
The BBS name isn't the only one that is irrelevant. The time
up flags (DA:, WK:, WE:) are only important if a person is going
to call the board not during the NMH -- and the #CM: flag
already means 24 hour operation (at least, that is the
consensus). And I really don't understand why anybody but the
programmers should care about extended protocol (the XP: flag).
I'm not sure about some of the others. For example, I think
the sysop-name field might be deleted. I suppose it can be
useful to have the sysop's name right at hand when writing a
note, but it is only rarely that this is really used. SEAdog
systems have their USERLISTs, but I wonder how much this is
really used -- and whether it is really worth burdening the
entire net with what might well be replaced by the SEAdog sysop
by a short list of the most common names sent to.
Some simple things ought to be changed: decimal numbers to hex
numbers (they save some space), two-digit baud numbers (nobody
runs at 12 baud, do they?), and CR instead of CR/LF as the end
of line marker. Those should be simple.
That's 41 bytes. Some listings will save more, some less, but
doing what I've suggested might well cut half of the length of
the nodelist --without losing any of its capability as a list of
Matrix nodes.
14 Nov 1987
The First New England Sysop Conference, to be held at the
Lederle Graduate Research Center, 16 Floor University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. Contact Mort Sternheim at 1:321/109
for details.
7 Dec 1987
Start of the Digital Equipment Users Society meeting in
Anaheim, CA. Contact Mark Buda at 1:132/777 for details.
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.
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.
Date: Fri 25 Sep 87 03:09
From: Ben Baker
To: Don Daniels
Subj: Resignation
For reasons of health, sanity and marriage, I must, with some
regret, tender my resignation as IFNA VP - Technical Coordinator,
and as IFNA Director.
David Dodell (114/15) was to assume the role of zone 1
coordinator on October 16. I have accellerated that schedule and
entered him as 1/0 in the list to be published later this
morning.
I feel that I have made some significant contributions to the net
in the past. For that I am pleased.
I feel that I am contributing little now, and spending many
unpleasant hours doing it. For that I am displeased! Worse, I
feel little urge to contribute in the future. In short, I'm
burned out. It would be a disservice to the net and to myself to
continue.
As to the position of VP-TC, I have no recommendation. I am
confident that the ZC's can keep the net running smooth so you
need not rush into a posibily bad decision, just for the sake of
filling the position. I suggest you try to find someone with
political talent first and technical expertise second, though
both are important.
It seems like we have just barely returned home from FidoCon IV
and here it is time to start thinking about FidoCon V already. A
successful conference of this sort takes a great deal of advance
planning and coordination. The Membership Services Committee,
under the chairmanship of Phil Ardussi, has been charged with
recommending a site to hold FidoCon in August 1988.
Would you like to host the next FidoCon in your city? Here is
your chance. Send a proposal to the FidoCon Site Selection
subcommittee to be considered for the honor of hosting FidoCon V.
What do you need to do to host FidoCon in your city? I'm glad
you asked. Planning an international conference requires a great
deal of work on the part of the hosts. A site must be selected
with adequate meeting space, accessibility, reasonable price and
1001 other details. To give you an idea of what needs to be done
and to give the Site Selection Subcommittee some information
about your city, we need to have the following questionnaire
filled out:
LOCATION:
1. What is the mileage from the airport to the host hotel?
2. Is shuttle service furnished by the hotel available to
and from the hotel and airport?
3. Are there direct (no connections) flights from the top
ten largest metropolitan areas to your airport?
HOTEL FACILITIES:
1. Is there a large (150 person) conference room which
will be available throughout the conference?
2. Are there at least three smaller conference rooms which
will be available for meetings during the conference?
3. Will there be display space for vendors?
4. Will there be a small private conference room available
for the host and other committees?
5. Will the hotel guarantee room rate, not to exceed $80
for double occupancy?
6. Will the host committee prepare a list including price
ranges and bill of fare for all hotel restaurants in
advance of the conference?
7. Will the hotel provide early committment on prices of
banquets, receptions, coffee break service, and any
other food and beverage service to the conference
sessions?
FidoNews 4-38 Page 14 5 Oct 1987
8. Does the hotel have handicap facilities?
LOCAL SUPPORT:
1. There must be an active committee consisting of at
least five members in the host city at least nine
months before the conference. Members of this
committee should be prepared to spend at least two
hours per week in the early planning stages and at
least 8-10 hours per week just before the conference.
The local chair should work closely with the FidoCon
subcommittee chair by Net Mail, US Mail, and voice.
Please furnish the name of the host committee and the
name and address of the host chairperson.
2. Sponsorship of the conference by a local user group
is okay. Please furnish the name of the sponsoring
group, if any.
3. Will a list of nearby restaurants (all price ranges --
including fast food) and local entertainment be
prepared by the local committee?
4. Will maps of the area would be provided to attendees?
5. What activities for family members should will be
planned by the local committee?
6. Will there be a software swap area set up with
computers for people to trade disks? Will any of them
be equipped with a printer and/or modem? Will disk
sales (at cost) be included?
7. Will there be conference souvenirs, including but not
limited to T-shirts and hats, available throughout the
conference?
8. Will a special rate on car rentals be available to
FidoCon attendees?
OTHER:
1. What other events would you suggest for attendees?
2. What are the features of your city that make it
particularly desirable for hosting FidoCon?
GENERAL COMMENTS: (To be filled in by the prospective hosts)
Please give a lot of thought to the amount of time and money that
will be involved in hosting FidoCon. Then, write up your
proposal and send it to us. We will evaluate all proposals and
make recommendations to the IFNA Board of Directors.
Proposals can be sent by NetMail to 128/13, or by US Snail to:
Jim Cannell
FidoNews 4-38 Page 15 5 Oct 1987
4350 Burton Way #238
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80918
If you want to include any printed promotional materials from the
hotel or other facility, forward five copies to the above
address.
If you have any questions or problems, please send me NetMail or
give me a voice call at 303-531-9043. The other members of the
FidoCon Site Selection subcommittee are also willing to provide
any assistance. They are:
Chuck Sanders 128/16
Irene Henderson 107/9
Steve Bonine 115/700
Phil Ardussi 157/1
If there is anyone else out there who has experience in
convention planning that is not connected with one of the
prospective host cities who wants to help with planning, you are
welcome to join the Membership Services Site Selection
Subcommittee. Send a NetMail note to Phil Ardussi at 157/1.
PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY OCTOBER 31.
=========================================
Jim Cannell
FidoCon Site Selection Subcommittee Chairperson
128/13
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications. **
Name _________________________________ Date ________
Address ______________________________
City & State _________________________
Country_______________________________
Phone (Voice) ________________________
Net/Node Number ______________________
Board Name____________________________
Phone (Data) _________________________
Baud Rate Supported___________________
Board Restrictions____________________
Special Interests_____________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Is there some area where you would be
willing to help out in FidoNet?_______
______________________________________
______________________________________
Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to:
International FidoNet Association
P. O. 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 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 on this Conference.
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
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.
System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____
ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member.
Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $65.00 _____
ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member.
As of November 1, 1987 price will increase to
$100. Orders including checks for $65 will be
returned after October 31, 1987.
SUBTOTAL _____
Missouri Residents add 5.725 % Sales tax _____
International orders include $5.00 for
surface shipping or $15.00 for air shipping _____
TOTAL _____
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
IFNA
P.O. Box 41143
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 USA
