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 available for network mail between NMH-1
hour to NMH+1 hour. At all other times, netmail is not accepted
although submissions can be uploaded.
Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All
rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for
noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted
at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141.
Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of
Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and
are used with permission.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
received.
Happy New Year!!!
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
Backmail - A new comm. program ........................... 1
Followup to "Last Saturday" .............................. 3
VETNet is ALIVE!!!!! ..................................... 5
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 12
RegComm - Communications From RegCon ..................... 12
Rogel's Corner: Laptops ................................. 14
Let's YACK about Culture ................................. 21
3. NOTICES .................................................. 22
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 22
And more!
FidoNews 6-01 Page 1 2 Jan 1989
Product Description: A new kind of micro-computer communications
program which provides modem to modem E-Mail and file transfers
etween any two MS-DOS machines running the program.
A small (35K RAM) TSR automatically schedules, calls and sends
mail to up to 100 destinations at a time in the background. TSR
answers the phone, receives messages or files and sends any
messages or files addressed to the calling program (identified by
phone number). Automatically retries if busy, or broken connec-
tion. A hot key brings up (by memory swapping) a front end
program which allows the user to read, send and monitor mail
flow. *Very* fast and unobtrusive in operation. Point and shoot
menus throughout. Easy to use.
A full screen text editor for messages (max 3.5K), word wrap,full
cursor movement. Messages automatically stamped with: time sent
or received; letter heads, forwarding and reply history. Incoming
and outgoing mail listed by subject line, time received or posted
and destination name. Mailboxes support: delete message, delete
all messages, delete all read/sent messages. Messages can be
appended to separate files. On screen notification of arrival of
mail.
Eight user definable prefixes (for inter-office numbers, local,
long distance...). Handles Long numbers or short extensions.
Allows separate phone entries for destination's voice and data
lines. Destinations can be give priority in scheduling. Destina-
tions can me marked so calling system refuses return mail (for
long distance calling).
Status Display shows pending messages, number of times called for
all pending files or messages. Calls to specific destinations
can be suspended so traffic is delivered only when that destin-
ation calls. Status Display also records aborted transmissions
with diagnosis of cause of failure.
Program maintains a mailing list of up to 1000 phone numbers.
Messages are addressed by menu of phone directory. A message can
be addressed to up to 100 separate destinations per access.
Allows bulk mailing for inter-office or local numbers (up to
1000).
For each destination in mailing directory the program stores
information on when the destination is available for data traffic
and how many times the destination should be retried if busy.
Each user declares own availability time and maximum retries and
this info is exchanged whenever two BackMails communicate. Calls
are automatically scheduled and retried to take account of dest-
ination's window of availability.
FidoNews 6-01 Page 2 2 Jan 1989
File directory listing, wildcards permitted. Up to 100 files can
be addressed at to 1-100 separate destinations each access. Sends
files of any size. File sending protocol insures destination has
sufficient disk space.
Setup menu allows user extensive control of program parameters,
including: toggle user notification, data only versus voice &
data operation, Wait for dial tone, defining hot keys, on screen
clock, screen colors, customized modem command strings and modem
response codes. Happily cohabits with most other TSRs.
The program is share ware. It periodically asks you to register
your copy ($30), whines for 20 seconds if you don't. To register
you hit a key and fill out a form with credit card info. As soon
as the registration screen is completed the program will not
bother you again. The credit card info is sent to an 800 data
number (US & Canada). Registered users receive strong technical
support.
BackMail is available through BBS's and Information services.
Alethic offers SYSOPS and SIGs a royalty arrangement which
provides a $3.00 royalty for each copy registered. Contact
Alethic for details. Alethic Software, 52 Parkhill Road, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada B3P 1R2 Voice: (902) 420-0734 BIX(alethic)
FOLLOWUP TO "LAST SATURDAY"
Tom Jennings
Node 1:125/111
This short article is a followup to the one in FNEWS5-48; maybe
it will provide a little background and answer some questions.
The FidoNet itself was based upon the principles I try to live my
life by; respecting others rights, principles and lives; self-
determination, and organization by cooperation, not coercion. All
of these are, after all, the most basic anarchist principles.
There is no contradiction in what I say vs. what I do.
The language in the article was a violent response to a violent
day. And yes, my life is my personal business only, and not
yours: however there are people out there who want to meddle in
MY business for THEIR reasons. I have no right to interfere with
you if you like to hang out in suburban malls, stay home and read
the Bible, join the army, drop out of school and become a hippy,
or anthing else that doesn't interfere with MY life.
The very first negative comment I received said "All that you
have done is to reinforce the views about homosexuals held by
such unthinking individuals as the driver of that car. And you
may have steered some of the rest of us toward the same path by
your inclusion of such explicit terms and references..."
Well spoken: this is exactly what my article is about. The second
sentence above says that in response to what I wrote, violence
against me, and the legal (or not) removal of my rights is an
acceptable response.
Now after reading my article you could call me an ass, tasteless,
rude, disgusting, awful, inconsiderate, perverse, whatever you
want, you're entitled to your opinion. But violence? I cannot
tell you how common this train of thought is, and how often it is
followed up with violence or death. It is simply a
rationalization of the desire to commit violence upon someone,
for reasons of the perpetrators alone. This is what my article is
about. No, it's not very pleasant at all, is it?
The article had almost nothing to do with sexuality; it had to do
with fascist (look it up in a dictionary) behaviour, as it
exists, today, in the USA. I never said that IV (or any other)
drug use is "OK", or unprotected anal sex is "OK", or that you or
I would find these things comfortable subjects. Nor are they
related except for disease transmission. Gay people do them no
more often than straight ones. The fact remains that many people
DO do these things, that's life, even people who read this
newsletter.
Defending peoples rights is not the same as defending what they
do. I will defend myself, my friends, and your right to live as
we each see fit. That, my friends, is what fighting for
individual freedom, and First Amendment rights, really means.
Have you ever read the United States Constitution? Read it, and
FidoNews 6-01 Page 4 2 Jan 1989
see the intent behind the words. Look around you and see the
attempts to circumvent it. Send me $1.00 (Tom Jennings, Box
77731, San Francisco CA 94107) and I will mail you a typeset
copy, nicely annotated, for your reference.
I've said more than I planned on the subject; I'm not here to
argue with anybody, you can believe what you want. I do not like
to argue politics or personal ethics, it offends everyone. This
is the last I will say on this subject.
Remember the quote by that Catholic priest in Nazi Germany: "When
they came for the jews, I didn't object because I wasn't a jew
... when they came for me, there was no one left to object."
Sheesh, I'm not usually so grim and serious. I promise I'll
shut up now. I have received more positive mail than hate mail,
and that's a good sign. But hell, I knew the net was filled with
mostly cool intelligent people, and could absorb something a
a bit (ahem) shocking. Sometimes things don't get spoken,
because... they just don't get said. Inertia. Time to speak out,
boys and girls.
* * *
As an aside, from my point of view, the network, all 4000+ nodes,
seems to run amazingly well. I know there's a lot of fighting
over control structures and such, as in the current trauma over
"other" networks, but the fact remains I can send a message just
about anywhere with incredible reliability. We haven't been
struck dumb by Babel, the nodelist is still wonderful, and the
RCs and NCs do a damn good job. Looks great!!!
VETNet is ALIVE!!!!!
By: Todd C. Looney
Vietnam Veterans' Valhalla
1:143/27 300/1200/2400 Bauds
(408) 293-7894
The sysops of the Vietnam Veterans Valhalla bulletin board
are both Vietnam combat veterans; I served during the war as a
Medical Field Surgeon in the U.S. Navy attached to an Emergency
Field Evac Hospital and later a long-range recon team near Dac
To, and spent more than my fair share of time in a VC/NVA prison
camp across the border in Laos, and Nancy my wife, who is a
veteran of a different sort having fought HER war *years* after I
returned to the United States, battling the problems I
brought back from that little country tucked thousands of
miles away in Southeast Asia. Nancy and I have, for the most
part, conquered all of the problems of that traumatic past
through years of hard work!
Many of the men and women who returned from that war
continue to carry it's memories and nightmares with them today.
Although most Vietnam veterans live a successful, happy life,
there are those whose every day is a bitter struggle to survive,
trying to find some way to either escape the horrible memories,
or to come to terms with themselves so they and their families
can begin to live a normal life!!
We feel it is our responsibility as caring and empathetic
individuals to share ourselves with those Vietnam combat
veterans of both kinds; the ex-military soldier-at-arms, and
their wives, friends, and lovers, with the hope that somehow the
knowledge and understanding we gained from the years
encompassing our own struggle might be of some help to those who
are still fighting their war!!!
THE VIETNAM VETERANS' VALHALLA BULLETIN BOARD
IS DEDICATED TO VIETNAM VETERANS,
THEIR WIVES, FRIENDS, & LOVERS!
And to the memory of the 58,000 men and women who never came home
Our system has been successfully operating for nearly 3
years now, and received well over 37,000 calls! We also founded
and coordinated the International Vietnam Veterans'
EchoConference (IVVEC) which can be seen on more than 200
bulletin boards across the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Please contact our system, or one of the nodes listed below who
carry our conference and join in. You don't need to be a veteran
of any kind to participate. We welcome you with open arms to
learn who we are and what we are all about!
Nancy and I are looking forward to meeting you all, as are
the Sysops of the nearly 200 VETNet BBs systems below:
=================================================================
VETNet NODELIST
FidoNews 6-01 Page 6 2 Jan 1989
Compiled by the Vietnam Veterans In Canada
=================================================================
As of 25 November 88 these are the net/nodes that are currently
listed as receiving the International Vietnam Veterans Echo. If
your local BBS is not listed, please send a message to Woody
Carmack 153/130 (1-604-462-8753) or leave a message in the
IVVEC.
NET/ MAX
NODE BBS NAME City/State/Country Phone BAUD
A very happy holiday season to you and yours from your Regional
Coordinators. May you all enjoy the best of everything and we
look forward to another year helping make FidoNet what YOU want
it to be.
It looks like we're moving ahead rapidly on the implementation of
new nodelist flags. The tentative schedule is to have a revision
out on the 23rd of December with comments and completion on or
before January 13, 1989. As soon as the new nodelist flags are
accepted we will begin implementation and hopefully the new flags
will all be in place by February 15th. Like all schedules, this
one is not cast in concrete but is the target. We will certainly
do our best to help assure that all changes are made as quickly
as possible. If there are incorrect flags listed for any node,
all flags will be stripped and that node will be listed as a
"plain vanilla" node handling mail during Zone Mail Hour only.
That will help us spot any that were missed and assure we get
them corrected quickly. We'll do our best to keep all Net
Coordinators advised as to the schedule so the changes can be
made as smoothly as possible.
The RegCon team is also implementing a method to protect the
delivery of the nodediff. This method will be a very basic one,
designed to avoid the possibility of anyone sending out a bad
nodediff to the net, either by accident or by intent. There is
also a program available in most areas named CRCNODE.EXE that
will run a quick test of the nodediff to see if the CRC is still
valid. While some feel these steps unnecessary, we have decided
that it's worth a little more work from us to help assure you get
an accurate and uncorrupted nodediff. No-one enjoys chasing all
over looking for a nodediff unnecessarily.
There has recently been a considerable amount of conversation
taking place in several conferences concerning the practice of
making private messages public without permission of the person
sending the private message. As there are several different
opinions on additions to FidoNet policy concerning messages sent
by NetMail that are `private', we would like your input on the
matter. Is private NetMail to be handled as the word intends,
"not for public or common use", or should we be more liberal and
allow open dissemination of all NetMail? Please share your
feelings on this by NetMail to your Regional Coordinator. Your
input will help us formulate the next version of FidoNet policy.
("RegComm" will be a weekly column in FidoNews and your comments
are welcome. Please address your concerns and comments via
NetMail to your Net or Regional Coordinator, you should receive
an answer within a few days. It's your net and we are in need of
your input in order for us to fairly represent you.)
Last year at about this time the "field" of laptop contenders
was fairly small and the prices were fairly high. In fact
the choice of laptop was fairly easy, provided you were
willing to make some big sacrifices in computing power in
order to "have one for the road".
In the July 21, 1987 issue of PC Magazine (Vol. 6, No. 13),
Paul Somerson raved about the Z-183 which "sprints along at 8
MHz". The October 27, 1987 issue of PC Magazine (Vol. 6, No.
18) recommended "for big spenders, the dazzling Zenith Z-181
or Z-183 Portable PC . . . with its 10-megabyte hard disk,
8-MHz clock speed, and remarkable 6-by 8-inch backlit
display, the Z-183 remains a heart-stopper."
Less than 6 months later, however, the Z-183 fell from grace;
this time Mr. Somerson criticized the Z-183 as, among other
shortcomings, being "a real arm-stretcher" and with a 8-MHz
speed, it "plods along with an anachronistic CMOS 8088"
(March 29, 1988 issue, Vol. 7, No. 6). What happened to it
being a "heart-stopper"? Was Mr. Somerson guilty of having a
fickle heart, did the Z-183 change for the worse, or was
there something else?
Choose door number 3: something else. That something else
was improved competition offering laptops with more speed and
more power.
Laptop computers have finally come of age. Finally convinced
that a promising market for laptops does exist, manufacturers
have been falling over themselves to get new and improved
laptops into the stream of commerce. A week does not go by
now without an announcement in the computer trade papers
about a new laptop.
No longer is this market limited to just a few companies such
as NEC, Toshiba, and Zenith. The Olivetti's, Samsung's,
Mitsubishi's, and many others are entering the fray and each
trying to outdo the others with feature-rich portables.
These features include 286, 386SX, and 386 chip technology;
substantially improved screen displays; the addition of
standard, non-proprietary expansion slots; increased RAM and
support for EMS; and larger storage capacity. If rumors are
to be believed, we may even see color screen displays in the
near future.
The consumer is the beneficiary of this increased
competition. Although choosing a laptop in today's market
will not be as easy as it was a year ago, it will be much
FidoNews 6-01 Page 15 2 Jan 1989
more exciting.
I have prepared a chart, set out below, comparing various
features of some popular and/or new laptops. This chart
contains only a sampling of the many laptops presently
available. [The original chart has been substantially
modified to satisfy FidoNews' margin requirements]
In view of the prospects of an increasing number of faster
and more powerful laptops entering the market in the next
several months, anyone interested in purchasing a laptop
should use this chart as a starting point only and then keep
abreast of current laptop developments through PC Magazine
and other computer publications. Two magazines devoted to
portable computers are listed at the end of this column.
Finally, I have included a brief discussion about the variety
of screen display technology that is or may soon be available
for laptops.
* * * * *
--------------------------------
| COMPARISON OF SELECT LAPTOPS |
--------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
MODEL Datavue Datavue Mitsubhishi
Spark Snap MP286L
1+1
============================================================
CPU 80C88 V20 286
SPEED 9.54 9.54 12
RAM 384 640 640
DRIVE 1x3.5 2x3.5 2x3.5
/720k /720k
SCRN super 10.5" 11"
blue NTN
super
BATT nicad nicad 3d party
WT 9 10 15.9
EXPANSION n/a 1/2 size 4 {proprietary}
LIST $995 $2,295 $3,195
OPTIONS 3.5 dr., 20MB, 20MB ($3,995),
BL, EL, BL super ext. 3.5" fd,
expansion or BL EL num.keypad,
chassis 1 fd/20MB add'l 2MB
combo RAM
------------------------------------------------------------
MODEL NEC NEC NEC
MultiSpeed MultiSpeed MultiSpeed
EL HD
FidoNews 6-01 Page 16 2 Jan 1989
NOTE REGARDING ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS USED
===========================================
BL = Backlit supertwist screen display (see below)
EL = electroluminescent backlit supertwist screen
FidoNews 6-01 Page 18 2 Jan 1989
display (see below)
Expansion = IBM standard / nonproprietary expansion slots
Fd = floppy disk drive
Gas = gas plasma
Nicad = nickel cadmium battery [as opposed to lead
acid]
Page white = Zenith's new display technology; see
discussion of fluorescent backlighting below
Super = supertwist screen (see below)
SCRN = screen
a. General
Like the technology used on watches and
calculators, the LCD has the advantage of being
lightweight and consuming little battery power.
Its disadvantages include poor
contrast/readability.
b. Supertwist
i. non-backlit
The screen is twisted so that it will reflect
light in all directions and not just straight
ahead.
ii. backlit
By adding light to the supertwist screen,
readability is improved by at the expense of
greater battery power consumption.
(1) Electroluminescent (EL)
The screen, containing phosphor, glows
when powered.
(2) Fluorescent
Small tubes provide the backlighting.
Slightly more battery power is used than
with the electroluminescent screens.
Examples include Datavue's amber gaslight
and, apparently, Zenith's newest laptop
entry, the TurbosPort 386, featuring
black characters on a white screen. This
display, which Zenith calls its "page
white" display, is the product of an
extra layer of polarizing material which
filters out blue light from the screen.
Light is used to increase the screen's contrast ratio,
resulting in a black on white image. Mitsubishi's new
MP286L with an 11-inch cold cathode tube (CCT) screen
and black characters on a white background (with
reversible screen colors), which Mitsubishi claims can
be read in all light conditions, is an excellent example
of this new technology.
3. Gas Plasma
A flat panel non-LCD screen. Each screen pixel is on or
off, providing a high contrast ration but requiring
greater power. Toshiba's high-end laptops use this type
of technology.
4. Active Matrix
A transistor is assigned to each screen pixel, resulting
in a contrast equivalent to a backlit LCD but without
the backlighting. Apparently the screen becomes
unusable if any one transistor ceases to operate.
According to *DataGram*, this technology is being
considered by several laptop manufacturers but is not
presently available.
* * * * *
For a complimentary subscription to Datavue's interesting
periodical entitled: * DataGram: The Exciting World of Laptop
Computing * write to:
Reading the IFNA EchoMail conference is good fuel for FidoNews
columns and articles. There's a lot of people out there, all
with ideas, a lot of discussions, generally pertinent to FidoNet
and, therefore, FidoNews. There's the occasional humor, too,
which I personally find a pleasant relief from all the serious
talk (and yell) that goes on out there.
Something is becoming clear to me, however. IFNA, SYSOP, and
many other important EchoMail Conferences go all over FidoNet; as
it should be. So does FidoNews. But FidoNews, and a great many
of the international conferences, are usually very American; de-
signed, written, subscribed to and supported by Americans. This
isn't in itself a bad thing. I'm American and certainly I am
proud of my country, hence why I serve in its armed forces; and
of course I agree that we've done some rather odd, sometimes
stupid, things in our short 202 years here.
But we are not the world. And FidoNet doesn't stay in the United
States anymore. It hasn't for a long time. And there's a senti-
ment out there that Americans are simply not welcome in some in-
ternational conferences that are otherwise open to members of any
race, color, creed or national origin.
Why? We're seen as arrogant, and perhaps rightly so. We are
quite accumstomed to being free to do just about anything we darn
well please over here, and often neglect to realize that other
cultures do not always afford the same freedoms. There are
places in the world where something you say can be cause for
death - by law. That is one of the more morbid conditions, but
is an indication of how carefully we must tread if we are going
to cross international and cultural boundaries. Usually our
trespasses are not across "blood lines" of death, but rather of
"social lines". There are subjects that simply are not accept-
able discussion material in some places. It's considered to be
in bad taste.
Americans have, in the past 50 years or so, been increasingly un-
interested in cultural development; education in other cultures.
Because of this we are insulting people worldwide, usually unin-
tentionally and often unknowingly. But THEY are noticing it.
Freedom of speech is great, but open-mindedness is, too.
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 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board
Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President
Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President
Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary
Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer
IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIVISION AT-LARGE
10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210
11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106
12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Mark Grennan 1:147/1
13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777
14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5
15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1
16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628
17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871
18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24
19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18
2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233
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.
