Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication
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Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
EuroCon IV: A General Overview to a Great Happening ! .... 1
Region17 FidoNet Convention .............................. 5
Region17 FidoCon Registration Form ....................... 6
Violet's Ansi Screens .................................... 9
FIDOCON 1990 REGISTRATION FORM ........................... 11
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 14
Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 14
3. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 16
Latest Software Versions ................................. 16
4. NOTICES .................................................. 19
And more!
FidoNews 7-18 Page 1 30 Apr 1990
EuroCon IV: A General Overview to a Great Happening !
_____________________________________________________
0. Maybe a small introduction ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Msg : 111, 14 Oct 89 21:06:00
From: Joop Mellaart
To : All
Subj: announcement Eurocon IV
-------------------------------------
Hello to you all,
On behalf of the organisation committee of Eurocon III I herewith
announce that Belgium will be the organising country for Eurocon
IV.
Ward Dossche has sent us a very good proposal which Peter
Janssens will post here within a few days. [...] we think that
the Belgian proposal is very good and Eurocon IV should therefore
be organised in Belgium.
Regards, <JM>
--- FD 2.00
* Origin: PCC Zonegate - Gateway to the Continents! (2:512/99)
1. ... or maybe a bit clearer ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was preparing this article, it crossed my mind, to start
telling you something about the history of FidoNet. But probably
most of you would already know all that stuff, so there was the
chance that you would drop of, just because of boredom. And that
would be a shame, really, because EuroCon is an occasion, which
every European FidoNet sysop should have seen at least once !
EuroCon is a happening which developed itself thru FidoNet-
history: Apparently, sometimes echomail is just not good enough
to keep good contacts between regions, so at a certain point in
time, it became clear that it would be really nice (if not
actually necessary), to organise a European Sysop-meeting. In the
United States, these happenings had already been organised: They
called it FidoCon.
FidoNews 7-18 Page 2 30 Apr 1990
So four years ago, the first European Sysop-meeting, EuroCon,
was organised. From then on, it was decided to organise such an
international meeting yearly.
2. And this year...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This year, Eurocon will be organised in Antwerp, Belgium, on July
14th and 15th. Antwerp is one of Belgium's biggest ports. The
historical city is a very convenient conference-city: Many
suitable hotels, in all price-classes are available, there is an
International Youth Hostel and a camping place. Since Antwerp is
an international city, it is very easy for foreigners to find
their way around: Most touristical, hotel- and other staff are
multilingual (Dutch, French and English are common; German is not
unusual). Furthermore, the city of Antwerp is easily reached by
car, train and airplane.
3. But what about the meeting itself ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're right. Better tell you someting about what's going to
happen on EuroCon IV. As matter of fact, EuroCon IV will be a bit
different from the EuroCon's before. This time, there will be 3
FidoNet conferences going on simultaneously ! The first one is
USERCON I. This conference will be dedicated entirely to Region
29 matters (Belgium). It is a meeting between sysops, points and
users of FidoNet Belgium. It will be open to the general public.
Obviously, this meeting won't be too interesting to the foreign
guests. It is merely a practical matter to organise UserCon I
during EuroCon IV. The other 2 conferences however will be
*very* interesting. Let's start with the new one...
The new one is TECHCON I. It will be a purely technical
conference on FidoNet matters. Provisions are being made, to
invite as many as possible developers of P.D., ShareWare or
commercial software. In particular, people being active in
developing mailers, terminal programs, BBS software and
utilities, packers, and whatever else is being used by amateur
communication freaks. Also manufacturers of comms hardware will
be invited.
It will be required to register in advance. You will be informed
about this in a few weeks, thru the FidoNews magazine, thru some
echomail channels (e.g. ENET.SYSOP), and also in EMBBS magazine.
But the main conference of course will be EuroCon IV ...
(tataaah...)
EuroCon IV will traditionally be devoted exclusively to the
phenomenon 'netpolicy'. Netpolicy, is the whole of rules which
are keeping the net up and operational. Without them,
communication in FidoNet would be impossible. Some main themes
that will be discussed are:
FidoNews 7-18 Page 3 30 Apr 1990
EEC- and European matters :
* The private computer-communication market after 1992
* Changing policy in the great internal market
* Creation of a European sysop-association
* Telephone companies and future European approval standards for
telecommunications hardware
* Auto-censoring, privacy and ownership of public electronic-mail
information
* Developments in Eastern-Europe
Internal policy matters :
* Electronic-mail policy
* Electronic-mail routing
* Elections
* Appointing EUROCON-V site
* Democracy within FidoNet
* Complaint-procedure
Technical matters :
* Fast modems (V32 - PEP - HST)
* Automated mailer software
* Technical standards
* New communication protocols
I guess you've got a general idea now, about what's going to be
discussed at EuroCon IV. Clearly EuroCon is a very important
conference. Because even if an amateur network is technically
capable of functioning well, it is only thru real human
communication, agreement and understanding, between the thousands
of participants, that such a huge network can be maintained.
And that really needs some agreements. Without them, FidoNet
would surely collapse. It is at meetings like EuroCon, that one
builds the strong structures that have kept FidoNet alive, all
these years !
4. Back down to the 'earthly' matters...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The programme, which of course can be subject to some minor
changes, will look like this:
* Friday July 13th
- Evening: Arrival most participants.
- Pre-meeting between the organising committee and the RC's and
ZC2, to discuss the coming days, set some priorities, and iron-
out whatever needs to be ironed out.
* Saturday July 14th
- Morning: EuroCon session-1
- Noon: Luch of course !
- Afternoon: EuroCon session-2
- Evening: Dinner, and optional '11-kroegentocht', not to be
FidoNews 7-18 Page 4 30 Apr 1990
missed by all beer-drinkers ! (Belgium is a country famous for
its beers !)
* Sunday July 15th
- morning: EuroCon session-3
- noon: lunch
- afternoon: EuroCon session-4
- evening: Probabely a dinner-cruise on the River Scheldt for all
registered participants, sponsors, companies and other people
that have contributed to the organising of EuroCon-IV.
- After 10pm: Everybody can seek a form of entertainment suitable
to his/her own needs.
* Monday July 15th
- morning: Check-out and departure of most participants.
There is also a fringe-programme for participants and relatives.
Including:
- Visit to the port of Antwerp.
- Visit to the famous Antwerp ZOO.
- Factory-visit.
5. But, isn't there always one more thing to say ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, there is:
You can send us your remarks, questions and suggestions. We have
opened a special node for EuroCon-IV. It has nodenumber
2:2/999.0, and it is open for mail 24 hours a day. We will be
happy to get some feedback, so that we can keep your suggestions
in mind, while setting up the meeting in detail.
You can address your messages to Ward Dossche, the team-leader of
the organising team. You can also write Ward or me a message in
ENET.SYSOP.
And above all: Be looking out for more information about EuroCon
IV. In a few weeks, we will start distributing registration
forms. Don't hesitate to join the conference. Don't put away that
form somewhere you'll probably forget it. Without you, it would
be much less fun ! We count on you ! Try to be there in July !
Jan Spooren (2:295/20.0)
Electronic-Press attache (Umpf!)
P.S.: We just received a message from Tomas Bremin (2:201/110.0),
moderator of InterUser: He tells us, we can expect a group of 15
to 30 people from InterUser, who are going to meet eachother at
EuroCon IV ! Watch my words: It'll be quite a happening !!
FidoNet Sysops and their families and friends are cordially
invited to attend a Region17 convention hosted by Net105
(VanPort; aka "Home of the Curmudgeon") July 27-29 at Menucha
Retreat and Conference Center. This will be the only "Fido"
convention on the West Coast this summer; guests outside the
boundaries of Region17 are more than welcome to attend.
Menucha was once the summer home of Julius Meier, founder of
Meier & Frank department stores and a former Governor of Oregon.
"Menucha" means "waters of refreshment" in Hebrew and is an apt
description of the unique natural setting - 98 acres of lawns,
woodlands and gardens - high on a bluff overlooking the Columbia
River. The main buildings were constructed around 1914 and are
historical sites. Recreation includes a 75x30 ft outdoor
swimming pool, regulation tennis court, basketball, horseshoe
pits, a surfaced volleyball court, table tennis, and biliards.
There are also numerous trails for hiking.
Menucha is located in Corbett, Oregon - 30 minutes from the
Portland International Airport and about 45 minutes from downtown
Portland. Freeways I-84, I-5, and I-205 are close by.
Convention prices are extremely affordable if you register before
May 15th. Menucha offers dormitories and family-style meals,
with a few semi-private and private accomodations. For example,
for an adult FidoNet Sysop who elects to arrive on Friday
afternoon, sleep in his sleeping bag in a dorm, and stay through
Sunday morning, the cost is a mere $70.50 (meals included).
Reduced prices apply to children, students, and spouses.
See the subsequent message for an official registration form, or
NetMail Janet Murray @ 105/23 or Ken Zwaschka @ 105/54 for more
information.
================================================================
| IMPORTANT NOTE: Since we must estimate _and pay for_ |
| the number who will be attending by mid-May, there |
| will be a limited number of places for late registrants! |
================================================================
Paid by June 15th:
_____ Number of reservations @ $10 _____
Paid by July 15th
_____ Number of reservations @ $20 _____
Paid after July 15th
_____ Number of reservations @ $30 _____
TOTAL ADDITIONS $ _____
TOTAL PAYMENT ENCLOSED: $ _____
Make checks payable (in U.S. Funds) to:
Net 105 Treasury / REG17CON
FidoNews 7-18 Page 8 30 Apr 1990
Send registration to:
Region 17 Convention
c/o Ken Zwaschka
Ken Zwaschka & Associates
P.O. Box 2226
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. 97208-2226
Reservations and room assignments will be confirmed via NetMail
within 48 hours of receipt.
Registration packets with a map to Menucha and information about
Portland metropolitan area shopping and recreational faciltities
will be mailed to all registrants on July 1st.
From
Violet Stymacks
at the
Rhinoceros Kitchen
1:152/8
Eugene, Oregon
When Ray (co-sysop of Rhinoceros Kitchen and myself first set-up
housekeeping together he told me," How much he was INTO
computers " :-}
I had NO IDEA just how much time he talking about.
Well it didn't take long for me to start calling the computer
THE OTHER WOMAN.God, how I hated the THING.
Being Dyslexic I would not go near the computer. Then one day he
downloaded a game called Hack and soon I would sit by his side
and watch him play(giving my input as to what he should do.):-)
Then he showed me how to play it myself. This was BEFORE we had
a Hard Disk. After a while my Characters got soooo big that I
needed to shuffle 4 floppies to hold them, so I got kind of
comfortable with the machine. (I won the game 14 times) and Ray
was very good about letting me share computer time with him.
Then Ray helped a friend set up a BBS (a game board) next thing
I knew he was thinking of starting a BBS of his own. I smiled
and said I thought he should give it a try. But I was thinking "
now I will never see or be able to talk to him because he will
be with " HER " (the computer) all the time.
Well I sure didn't fool Ray one bit with that smile , he sat me
down with THEDRAW and had me do asci screens for the message
bases.
Then a local sysop asked if I would do an ansi welcome screen
for his board. Next I was making screens for boards all over
Eugene.
Then we became a node on FidoNet.I started cruising the node
list looking for names I liked the sound of and I would make an
ansi drawing and send it to them.
I also put a copy in the <<RK>> art gallery. Most people liked
what I sent to them and used it. An ansi/asci screen from me is
a GIFT, not the beginning of some advertising "pitch" or
anything else.
I send a follow up message asking if they are using the screen,
if I don't hear from them after a while. If they are not using
it I " give it a face lift " and send it to some one else. I
call the screen a " LOGO " but sysops put them anywhere on the
board they want.I put the "OLD" logo screen some sysops send
with their thank you message,in a guest art gallery that i have
on our bbs.About 5 boards have my whole (a zip file of about
400k) art gallery on their board.
At this time about 290 BBS are using one or more ansi/asci
screens I have made. Most are in the USA, thirty are in Canada,
seven in zone2 and three in zone3 (that I know of). :-)
FidoNews 7-18 Page 10 30 Apr 1990
The truly sad part of all this is Ray almost never gets time to
use the computer anymore.
:-)
----
a quick note from ray here.I wanted to call this article
"computer shortage crises at rhinoceros kitchen",but Violet
wrote it,and after all,it IS about her art work.
Violet's art gallery is compressed into art.zip during 5:00 am
maintenance EVERY morning and is available for file requests as
ART.ZIP anytime,except midnight to 2:00 am Pacific time.The old
art.zip is deleted just before the new one is made, this way it
is updated daily.
----
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 7-18 Page 11 30 Apr 1990
The Secret Sysop Society presents __
*** Conclave '90 *** / \
The SYSOPS Convention /|oo \
Home of FidoCon 1990 (_| /_)
Lyndhurst, New Jersey _`@/_ \ _
August 1-5, 1990 | | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
Rate Plan Schedule: Before 6/1/90: Before 5/1/90:
-------------- --------------
A. Single Occupancy.......$595.00 $545.00 $495.00
B. Double Occupancy.......$450.00 $400.00 $350.00
C. Conference w/ meals....$300.00 $250.00 $200.00
D. Conference w/ Banquet..$205.00 $155.00 $105.00
E. Conference only........$175.00 $125.00 $ 75.00
F. Banquet only...........$130.00 $80.00 $ 30.00
G. Registrant & Spouse....$720.00 $670.00 $620.00
(All rate plans except plan F include all conference and hotel
fees. Those registering before 5/1/90 get a $100.00 discount,
those registering before 6/1/90 get a $50.00 discount.)
You must pay by Check, Money Order, or Credit Card. Please send
no cash. All monies must be in U.S. Funds. Checks should be
made out to: "Conclave '90"
The following registration form must be completed and mailed to:
PO Box 12
Lyndhurst, NJ 07071
You may register by Netmailing this completed form to 1:1/90 for
processing. Rename it to ZNNNXXXX.REG where Z is your Zone
number, N is your Net number, and X is your Node number. US Mail
confirmation is required within 72 hours of electronic filing.
If you are paying by credit card, please include the required
information. For your own security, do not route any message
with your credit card number on it. Crash it directly to 1:1/90.
The official Conclave '90 airline is American Airlines.
American offers a 5% discount the lowest applicable round-trip
fare, including 1st class travel, subject to availability of
inventory. All fare rules and restrictions apply. In addition,
American offers 40% off their round trip unrestricted day coach
fare. International travelers qualify for special benefits,
including complimentary admittance to the Admiral's Club Lounge
at any American Airlines terminal. Newark is an American Air-
lines city with direct flights to most major cities. When making
reservations, you must call American's Toll-free reservation
number at 800-433-1790, and reference Star number 13704F.
FidoNews 7-18 Page 12 30 Apr 1990
C O N C L A V E '90 R E G I S T R A T I O N F O R M
I read about this SpinRite program and thought I might try it
out because, well, you know I have 6 hard disks between home
and office machines. As it turns out, I was led astray, and
I'll tell you why.
Reading the shrink wrap at the store, I caught some fine print :
NOT compatible with Plus hard cards. OK, 1 down, 5 to go. I
buy it and get on to work. My main system there, the NCR has a
16-bit SCSI and 320 meg hard disk. Sorry. SpinRite thinks it
sees a CACHE, HA. 2 down, 4 to go. I start reading the online
docs. ERLL on a Compaq portable, NOT supported. 3 down.
I get it home. ESDI NOT supported. 4 down. This leaves the
old 286 portable, which sports an SDSI ( 5 down ) and a
Imprimis regular old 80 on a WD MFM controller. OK, 1 drive
out of 6. Be forewarned.
This brings up another sore point. That 80 meg drive is really
84, but I can only get some 72 megs recognized by my BIOS. It
seems that the drive type table is the key to this whole mess.
Compaq is really nasty about the drive types supported, which
is to their benefit when you want to add some space. This
nonsense has to change.
An interesting note in the SpinRite docs is the 'new SDSI
drives' which they don't support. New, my baby's butt.
Greenleaf Comm Lib --
I picked up the latest version of this software library and was
really impressed. With just 3 functions, OPEN, PUTC and GETC I
had a finished comm program. It can get a lot fancier than
that too. There's even a single function Send_Ymodem_G.
I wrote a tiny program that sends a user defined message, waits
for a timer or a response from the host system, and sends
another message. The host system is the cool machine, it is
switching video signals. The demo has 6 video disk players,
and 12 Sony 9 inch color TVs, and my comm program is talking to
the application, switching the different players ( and a couple
of internally generated test patterns ) across the TVs.
FidoNews 7-18 Page 15 30 Apr 1990
The marketing guys did OK too, the video disks included
Indiana, Trek, Rabbit and a really neat computer generated
video documentary. I quickly implemented a better transmit
hold routine because my program kept switching the signals
during the good scenes.
Greenleaf got a bad rap because of some weird happenings back in
the Opus 0.0 development days. Based upon my recent
experiences, their products are top notch.
Oracle Database Echo --
I have been working with the Oracle database for over a year and
the SQL language as well. I noticed that there wasn't an echo
for these topics. So I started one, it's called ORA_DBMS.
Oracle is probably the largest database company, with similar
software running on dozens of platforms. If there's one thing
BAD about their products, it's the documentation and support.
In fact, it's a nightmare. Maybe this echo can allow better
access to other user's, with the subsequent increase in
information. Of course, it may become the biggest FLAME forum
yet. We shall see.
In any case, if you're interested in, or are using Oracle, or
any other SQL based relational database, you are invited to
pick up ORA_DBMS. At this time, the echo is distributed
locally, including myself 1:124/6120 and by our DFW echo mail
distributor, 1:124/4115. As this is the first echo I have
tried to get started, you may know more about proper channels
to pick it up.
Ghost in the Machine --
Well it does look like I got screwed by an early Fidonews
release mechanism. ( What do want for nothin', eh ? ) I swear
I had that last column on 1:1/1 Sunday morning at 01:00. The
news archive was created at 11:00 and the news file data is
midnight Monday.
So that bit on the Lake Party was delayed a week. ( You missed
me, right ? ). Now you'll have to wait another week for the
skinny on the Great Event. I promise some juicy details aired
in public, Enquirer fashion.
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.
26 May 1990
First anniversary of Net 269, Northern New Jersey
3 Jun 1990
Comdex/Spring, which will run from June 3-6 in Atlanta, will be
held at the World Congress Center and other locations.
5 Jun 1990
David Dodell's 33rd Birthday
12 Jun 1990
Fifth anniversary of FidoNet's switch to multiple nets.
14 Jul 1990
Start of Eurocon / Techcon conference in Antwerp, Belgium.
Please note that the date has changed: The conferences are
one day later than originally planned !
27 Jul 1990
The beginning of the REGION 17 Convention at Menucha Resort in
the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. For details contact Ken Zwaschka,
1:105/54.
1 Aug 1990
Start of FidoCon '90. Contact Bill Vanglahn at 1:1/90 for
details.
5 Oct 1990
21st Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
6 Nov 1990
First anniversary of Van Diepen Automatiseert, 2:500/28
14 Nov 1990
Marco Maccaferri's 21rd Birthday. Send greetings to him at
2:332/16.0
1 Jan 1991
Implementation of 7% Goods and Services Tax in Canada. Contact
Joe Lindstrom at 1:134/55 for a more colorful description.
16 Feb 1991
Fifth anniversary of the introduction of Echomail, by Jeff Rush.
FidoNews 7-18 Page 20 30 Apr 1990
7 Oct 1991
Area code 415 fragments. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties
will begin using area code 510. This includes Oakland,
Concord, Berkeley and Hayward. San Francisco, San Mateo,
Marin, parts of Santa Clara County, and the San Francisco Bay
Islands will retain area code 415.
1 Feb 1992
Area code 213 fragments. Western, coastal, southern and
eastern portions of Los Angeles County will begin using area
code 310. This includes Los Angeles International Airport,
West Los Angeles, San Pedro and Whittier. Downtown Los
Angeles and surrounding communities (such as Hollywood and
Montebello) will retain area code 213.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
