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Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
AHA Conference Dates Announced ........................... 1
Hasson's Bowling League Secretary ........................ 2
Dentist, Anyone? ......................................... 3
An Echo Conference Rules Repository ...................... 4
On Nuclear Power and Viruses ............................. 6
SYSOP LIABILITY FOR DISCLOSING PRIVATE MESSAGES .......... 9
2. FOR SALE ................................................. 11
Make money distributing software ......................... 11
3. NOTICES .................................................. 13
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 13
"Butt Don't Rebutt that Butt" ............................ 13
Latest Software Versions ................................. 14
FidoNews 5-41 Page 1 10 Oct 1988
FLASH !!! - - AHA Conference is Kentucky Bound in 1989!
For the first time in it's history, the American Homebrewers
Association's national homebrew convention will be held outside
of Colorado. The 11th Annual Conference on Quality Beer and
Brewing will take place June 7-10, 1989, at Oldenburg
Microbrewery, Beerhall and Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, Ky.
(the Cincinnati, Ohio, metropolitan area and site of FidoCon
'88).
Highlights of the conference will be homebrew, beers from
regional breweries, the National Homebrew Competition, exhibits,
a homebrew club night, presentations and seminars, beer
personalities and the world's largest brewerania collection.
For more information write:
American Homebrewers Association
P.O. Box 287
Boulder, Colorado 80306
I have been bowling for 3 years now and have
seen many bowling league secretary programs used, some
commercial & some Public Domain. I have been working
on one of my own because I feel that I can develop a
program much better than those available. I have put
onto my bbs the first version of my program. I have
named it Hasson's Bowling League Secretary.
I wanted to let people try-out what I've done
so far and give me some feedback on what they think
of it. If the responce is favorable, I will proceed
in its development. The program name is BOWLEXE.EXE
and is available for Filereq or you can sign onto my
bbs under First & Last Name: BOWLER Password: PIN
I've just set up a node at my dentist's office in Wheaton,
Maryland, and I'd like to start a DENTAL echo conference. If
any of you have an interest in this echo, dentistry, or are
dentists yourselves, please drop me a note in netmail. Our system
will also be participating in AIDS/ARC, GRAND_ROUNDS (if we
get permission from the coordinator), RECOVERY, MENSA,
MENSANS_ONLY, and INTERTEL.
George Falcon, Sysop,
"Doctor Dave's Distinguished Dentistry Den"
Opus 1:109/763
PCPursuit DCWAS
(301) 933-9519
EchoList - The EchoMail Conference List
And the New Rules Repository
First, I wanted to spread the fact that the EchoList Moderator
Update Instructions (ELISTMOD.ARC) have been rewritten. My
intent was to make them clearer and easier to understand.
Unfortunately, I "simplified" it into twice as many pages! Sorry
about that, but I do get long winded. And I put more explanatory
detail into them, which tends to make the entire process of
sending me a simple message look much more complex than it is.
I'm open to critique.
Second, I wanted to point out the one major change documented in
those instructions: The addition of a repository for conference
rules in text files. I have to credit John Tarbox from 150/3 for
giving me the idea.
Basically, many conferences have developed a specific set of
rules and procedures for their participants. Generally these get
published within the conference itself as a message from time to
time. What John suggested was that people might like to know the
rules before linking-in, and it would be a good idea to have all
those rules available in a central place so that Sysops didn't
have to run down several moderators to assemble the information.
The EchoList provides a pretty generous amount of space for
describing a conference, but I think it's necessary to keep
things under control so that there's not too much detail given
there (as opposed to my moderator instructions...). I've had
people submit lengthy, detailed policy and instructions for their
conferences in that description field, only to have me edit it
down to the basic "advertising" to balance it out with other
entries. The EchoList also has flags for certain general
restrictions. I'm always glad to add more, but I can't cover
every term and condition with binary flags. Enter: The Rules
Repository.
It's very simple, really. A new moderator submission message
format has been added that provides for submitting an attached
file. That file must be named xxxxxxxx.RUL, where xxxxxxxx is a
unique abbreviation (if necessary) of the symbolic Area Name.
The file should be a raw text file (not a word processor file,
and not ARC'd). What's in it? Anything the moderator wants!
Formatted any way he/she wants. There are no restrictions on
size or content.
When my EchoList update processor finds such a message it will:
1) note the file name in the EchoList database for reference, and
2) ARC the .RUL file into the ELISTRUL.ARC file with all the
other rule files. Deleting the EchoList entry will automatically
delete any rule file associated with that conference. The
ELISTRUL file will be distributed along with the ELISTnnn and
ELISTMOD files, as well as being available for file-request or
FidoNews 5-41 Page 5 10 Oct 1988
first-time user download here at 1/201.
The only thing I don't like about this procedure is that there is
no way for people to selectively request the rules for a specific
conference. You get them all. But, it was much simpler to
implement this way (you don't need a key to the file names to get
the rules for a conference with a long name). And, you always
have to get the entire EchoList when you request it, not selected
entries. So, it doesn't seem too unreasonable.
As of this writing (10/1/88) the rules file has just been
implemented, and there is no ELISTRUL.ARC file to request! So
don't waste your nickel on trying to pick it up just yet. But I
hope this will eventually be helpful. If you are a conference
moderator and would like to submit an entry or rules file to the
EchoList, please get a copy of the new Conference Listing Update
Instructions dated 10/1/88, and have at it!
As a reminder, the following "magic" file names (use without a
period or file extension) are always file-requestable at 1:1/201.
ECHOLIST The latest Echolist, plus cross-references.
ECHORULE The collection of Conference Rules Files.
ECHOMOD The latest Moderator Update Instructions.
ECHOPOL The latest draft EchoMail Policy document. (This is
a document being assembled by FidoNet *C's and *EC's
for EchoMail in general, NOT just EchoLIST policies.
If you have ANY interest in where EchoMail is going,
please read it and contribute.)
By Milo Tsukroff, former FidoNet Sysop.
Contact through Willi-Board, 1:320/216.0.
US Mail: 84 Ash St., Apt. 32, Willimantic, CT 06226-2943
May God protect us from 'experts'. Whether they are 'experts' on
nuclear power plants, or on computer viruses, they make our
lives miserable by knowing _almost_ everything, but not enough.
Then they try to run our lives accordingly.
Fredrick L. Rice's article "To Disassemble The Machine", in
FidoNews 5-36 (5 Sep 1988) was an interesting work of fiction. I
highly recommend it, as it has many good, sound technical
points. However, I wish to point out a few inaccuracies, and
then write something along the same lines that'll knock your
socks off -- about computer viruses.
The problem with article is that it tells a great deal about
the nuclear industry, but it is totally wrong in a few minor
details. They're the critical ones. What the article
hypothesizes about a nuclear plant accident resulting from an
unexpectedly strong California earthquake could probably happen,
but never to the degree that it predicts. Even worse for the
position stated in the article, no possibility of nuclear
explosion exists.
One major point that the article does not discuss is that
nuclear piping and valves are not the kind of pipes and valves
that we are all used to. An electron-beam welding company that I
worked for occasionally welds nuclear valves. The piping for a
nuclear plant is rather interesting -- the pipes that these
valves control have an inner diameter of about 3 inches. Their
outer diameter is about 9 inches. That's right -- the walls are
3 inches thick of pure stainless steel. I wonder if these pipes
would even be affected by a ground-zero atomic blast, let alone
a little 8.5-Richter earthquake.
Even granting the possibility that these pipes _could_ break, as
metals (especially a nuclear reactor's hydrogen-embrittled
steels) do strange things under stress, the prospect of a
nuclear explosion occurring in an atomic power plant is
ludicrous.
Let me state here that a worst-case scenario can indeed include
hydrogen-oxygen gas explosions, core melt-down, and
magnificently huge steam explosions. The article is technically
correct on those points, and we avoided them by only a little
bit at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident. The
prospect of a radiation-laden steam cloud being forced out of
nuclear plant is a very real but very low-probability threat,
one which we should be prepared to deal with.
But the possibility of a nuclear EXPLOSION occurring in a
nuclear power plant does not exist. At all. First of all,
uranium metal is never used in a commercial reactor. The Nuclear
FidoNews 5-41 Page 7 10 Oct 1988
Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not allow it. Instead, the
uranium is dispersed in ceramic. The ceramic is made into small
pellets, each of which is so low in radioactivity that you could
hold one in your hand with only a small amount of shielding and
not receive any dangerous levels of radiation (not that I would
want to, mind you!).
Ceramic can melt, given high enough temperatures. I'll even
grant that, in the article's scenario, the ceramic (not pure
uranium, though!) could melt together, fuse, and heat up
drastically, thus producing a killer cloud of atomically charged
steam. But the differences between uranium isotopes does not
seem to be understood. Uranium-238, which is non-radioactive, is
the primary isotope of uranium. The fissionable isotope,
uranium-235, appears in very small percentage in uranium. It is
present in such small quantities that the nuclear-fuel
manufacturers must 'enrich' the uranium that they sell with a
little bit of uranium-235 so that the pellets will sustain a
nuclear chain reaction. The process of separating out U-235 from
U-238 is so difficult that it does not occur in nature.
If a nuclear reactor is to explode in a run-away nuclear fission
chain reaction, as some of the less-informed but more zealous
anti-nuclear groups claim is possible, the reactor would have to
be a fast-fission, pure-uranium fueled reactor. (It is possible
that the reactors on nuclear-powered ships come under this
label. I don't know, though.) Given a commercial nuclear
reactor, with a sizeable amount of fuel, and under the worst of
circumstances, an atomic-bomb type of explosion cannot possibly
occur. You can check with the more reputable anti-nuclear groups
on this.
One more thing has been left out: The production of fissionable
plutonium by alpha-absorbtion of U-238 atoms. (Sorry, I don't
have a physics book on hand to look up the exact atomic number.)
According to an engineer at the Northeast Utilities Millstone
nuclear power plant, at the end of a fuel pellet's life, most of
the U-235 is spent. Nearly 40 percent of the pellet's heating
power comes from plutonium fission.
These plutonium atoms are, again, contained in the ceramic
matrix of the pellet. The possibility of spontaneous separation,
refinement, and run-away nuclear fission ("atomic-bomb"
explosion) does not exist.
I commend the article for being a well-written piece. Problems
with poorly-located nuclear plants have resulted both from the
dollar greed of the power industy managements, and from
citizens' refusal to let power plants be built in safer places
(the old "Not In My Back Yard" or NIMBY syndrome).
While reading "To Disassemble the Machine", I had a happy
thought: Why not do a 'worst case' scenario about problems with
computer viruses? Why not even take a couple of _very_ minor
liberties with the facts, and create a scenario to put fear into
the heart of _every_ technically competent reader? . . . . . .
FidoNews 5-41 Page 8 10 Oct 1988
Well, I don't have to. The editors of TIME Magazine have done it
for me -- and on the front cover, no less! They feature Computer
Viruses on the front cover of their September 26th edition.
Their set of articles insinuates that viruses are here, they're
spreading fast, and that no BBS or computer network is safe.
This issue of Time will certainly make future business for
FidoNet quite ... interesting, shall we say? It scares the
dickens out of _me_, that's for sure!
Sadly, I think that this is a great and terrible piece of irony.
"To Disassemble the Machine" strikes another blow in the
direction of anti-technological ignorance. It practically
screams its message of "Down with the nukes!" Now FidoNet will
receive the same bitter fruit of non-technical ignorance,
hatred, fear, and loathing -- directed at its own Bulletin Board
Systems. The very system that has been such a medium of
communication, and therefore such a benefit to Mankind, is laid
low by ignorant 'experts' who think that they'll make a buck
scaring the daylights of the average computer user. I don't
appreciate FidoNews carrying that article, and I don't
appreciate Time for printing that issue on computer viruses.
I that that it goes to show that if you tolerate, even foster,
anti-technological attitudes, and try to act the 'expert' about
what you are attacking, it'll get back to you eventually. Or, as
it was better said by someone else: "What goes around, comes
around." God save us from 'experts'!
Anybody for a nice, little, radioactive virus?
--------------------------
(I have expressed my own opinions here. In no way do I bear Mr.
Rice or the editors and writers of TIME Magazine any personal
ill will. My address is in this article. FLAMES > NUL.DEV, thank
you.)
In what appears to be the first case of its kind, an
Indiana law student and BBS user has sued a local sysop, Bob
Predaina, in federal court, claiming that he intentionally
disclosed her private electronic mail to others without her
permission.
The lawsuit, which is in the early stages and has not
reached trial, relies upon the Electronic Communications Privacy
Act of 1986 (the "ECPA"), which makes disclosure of private
electronic mail without consent either of the sender or the
recipient a federal crime.
The ECPA does not obligate sysops to offer private mail
on their systems. However, if a sysop promises private mail, that
promise must be kept and the contents of private messages may not
be disclosed without consent.
The ECPA provides limited exceptions to the general
rule of no disclosure. A sysop may voluntarily disclose to law
enforcement authorities the contents of a message pertaining to
the commission of a crime, if read inadvertently by him or if it
is read pursuant to the exercise of his duties as a sysop.
Until the courts clarify these rules, sysops who read
private mail on their systems and disclose it may be playing with
fire. Prior court cases involving telephone operators have
established some useful guidelines: an operator may disclose
information she overheard while checking the line at the
user's request, but may not disclose information overheard
while eavesdropping out of curiosity. Sysops, like phone
operators, will not be considered to have a blanket authorization
to intercept and disclose private messages.
Systems such as Fido 11W which routinely make all
private mail visible to the sysop are therefore problematic. BBS
programmers should consider making private mail truly private--
while allowing sysops to turn the private mail option off if they
do not want it.
In the meantime, sysops should reconsider whether it is
worth having private mail on their systems and should make clear
to users in no uncertain terms, through bulletins and messages,
the degree of privacy which can be expected, if any.
Note: a copy of the complaint filed in the Thompson v.
Predaina case is available on the LLM BBS, Fido 107/801
((212)766-3788) in file area 5 under the name "Indiana".
* * *
JONATHAN D. WALLACE, ESQ. is an attorney in New York City
specializing in computer law. With Rees Morrison, he is the
author of the Sysop's Legal Manual, published this year by LLM
Press. He can be reached at (212) 766-3785 (voice) or at the
LLM BBS, given above.
FidoNews 5-41 Page 10 10 Oct 1988
=================================================================
FOR SALE
=================================================================
If you are a system operator and wish to make money by
distributing The Structured Programming Language, you
can call a 2400 baud bbs in NY at 516 935 2027 and
download file SPL.EXE which will take only 15 minutes.
It is important to note that the self extracting archive
file SPL.EXE has 2 files in it that are passsword locked
and unless given the password will fail crc checks, but
the files are good. These files are documentation that
your users will contact me to get the passwords, which
will insure that I get paid and thus you get paid.
You will be paid $5 for every paid registration I get from
users who tell me the filename that uniquely identifies
your bbs as the distribution point for SPL.
If you are not a sysop, you can make money after you
register and pay for your copy of The Structured
Programming Language. Call 516 694 5872 for details.
Fill out the form below and mail with an SASE to:
Dennis Baer
25 Miller Road
Farmingdale,NY 11735
or you can call 516 694 5872.
SYSOP name ______________________________
Street ______________________________
City,State ______________________________
Filename ______________________________
to rename
SPL.EXE to
The above information will be kept confidential.
Leave filename field blank. I will fill that in
for you to rename your file.
One copy, original disk, mint condition. Manual is complete,
and not marked or dogeared. Best offer over $50. Reply via
netmail to George Falcon at 1:109/648 24hrs./day, 7 days/wk.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Now wait a minute. There has been a flood of personal mail
coming into this system offering support against a rebuttal
which occurred in FidoNews pertaining to "To Disassemble The
Machine" which apparently came out this last month.
It seems that a rebuttal issued from the MENSA Hub was posted
which was apparently concerned with my spelling and use of
abbreviations which were misunderstood by the author. Though I
haven't seen the rebuttal yet, the general consensus in my mail
describes such things as the use of NRA rather than NRC to
describe the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; perhaps thinking I
meant the National Rifle Association? It seems the author
doesn't know that NRA is the sister Nuclear Regulatory
Association to the AEC, (that's Atomic Energy Commission, MENSA,
not Automated Equipment Controller).
As was suggested in some of my mail, I would ask that those of
you who were offended by the rebuttal you read should _NOT_ post
a counter rebuttal in FidoNews. You have to agree that
regardless of the media used and the research performed to
develop an informed article, there is always someone who is
going to take intellectual offense and post a response that
yields nothing but an increase of the noise-to-signal ratio in
FidoNews; increasing distribution costs throughout the network.
At any rate, thanks for your support and consideration. It will
take quite a bit more than this ignorance to cause me to flame
out of the net!
- By the way: I am _Fredric_ Rice, NOT _David_. David is the
Pagan with the tattoos and a pentagram on his shaven forehead.
FidoNews 5-41 Page 14 10 Oct 1988
I'm the one with the Universal Mayhem ear rings and the white
high heals.
Fredric L. Rice, (103/503.3), Astro-Net, (714) 622-2294.
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.
Hal DuPrie 101/106 Chairman of the Board
Bob Rudolph 261/628 President
Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President
Ray Gwinn 109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
David Garrett 103/501 Secretary
Steve Bonine 115/777 Treasurer
IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIVISION AT-LARGE
10 Courtney Harris 102/732? Don Daniels 107/210
11 Bill Allbritten 11/301 Hal DuPrie 101/106
12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 147/1
13 Rick Siegel 107/27 Steve Bonine 115/777
14 Ken Kaplan 100/22 Ted Polczyinski 154/5
15 Larry Kayser 104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1
16 Vince Perriello 141/491 Robert Rudolph 261/628
17 Rob Barker 138/34 Steve Jordan 102/2871
18 Christopher Baker 135/14 Bob Swift 140/24
19 David Drexler 19/1 Larry Wall 15/18
2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 107/233
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Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-41 Page 17 10 Oct 1988
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