Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only.
For use in other circumstances, please contact Fido Software.
FidoNews is published weekly by the System Operators of the
FidoNet (r) International BBS Network. It is a compilation of
individual articles contributed by their authors or authorized
agents of the authors. The contribution of articles to this
compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors.
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 a Continuous
Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day.
Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of
Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are
used with permission.
Opinions expressed in FidoNews articles are those of the authors
and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of Fido Software.
Most articles are unsolicited. Our policy is to publish every
responsible submission received.
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
Credit Where Credit Is Due ............................... 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
FidoCon '90 Update! ...................................... 2
Region 11 RC Election .................................... 4
FIDOCON 1990 REGISTRATION FORM ........................... 7
3. COLUMNS .................................................. 10
Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 10
4. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 12
Latest Software Versions ................................. 12
5. NOTICES .................................................. 15
And more!
FidoNews 7-22 Page 1 28 May 1990
Almost unnoticed in the past week, there has been a change in
Zone 1. Steve Bonine has stepped aside as Zone Coordinator and
George Peace, his elected replacement, has assumed the position.
Almost unnoticed. That's as it should be. And it's part of the
legacy Steve leaves us that it happened in just this manner.
When he accepted the job, Steve had made it abundantly clear that
he was only going to keep it for a year. There were a few times
when events nearly led him to reconsider and leave earlier.
I for one am grateful that he stayed the course.
During Steve's tenure, a system of electing Regional Coordinators
has been evolving, and several Regions have held elections either
to replace their Coordinators or to confirm their public
acceptance. This very real step towards Democracy in FidoNet has
indeed worked quite well. Steve was never certain that Democracy
could in fact work, but he devoted a lot of energy to give it a
chance.
Often in FidoNet, people react to others who don't agree with
them by stooping to personal attacks. As one of the most
influential (and exposed) members of FidoNet, Steve had to accept
more of that particular kind of traffic than perhaps anyone else.
Nevertheless, he continued to communicate honestly with the
people of FidoNet and did not become hostile or stop trying to
understand what the other parties were trying to get across to
him. In a very real sense, he was able to serve as Z1C and at
the same time, retain the perspective of an individual FidoNet
sysop. I have nothing but respect for the mental powers and
emotional stability that made such a thing possible.
Thank you, Steve. Congratulations, George. You have a tough act
to follow.
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FidoNews 7-22 Page 2 28 May 1990
Well, the first discount deadline has passed, however, if you
get your registrations in before June 1st, you can STILL save
$50 on the conference fees! Send your application (included in
this issue of FidoNews) to 1/90@FidoNet.
If you can't pay for the entire conference all at once, don't
forget that you can reserve your discount by sending in a non-
refundable deposit of $100.
Phil Becker will be attending FidoCon, and will be talking about
TBBS, TDBS, and his latest creation, The Integrated Mail System
for TBBS, or TIMS, which gives multi-line TBBS systems
continuous mail capability!
Thom Henderson will also be giving a seminar on several of
System Enhancement Associates' products, as well as a look to
the future for SEA.
Jack Rickard of BoardWatch Magazine will be there!
US Robotics will make their usual appearence at the convention,
and will have several announcements for future USR products!
Good Egg Net has also announced that their national convention
will be held at Conclave '90, making the fourth amateur network
to participate!
Bit Bucket Software is also going to participate! Bob Hartman,
Vince Perriello, and Alan will all be there to talk about
BinkleyTerm, Confmail, etc.
Jonathan Wallace will be hosting a seminar on "Sysops and the
Law". Jonathan is the author of the book "SYSLAW: The Sysop's
Legal Manual", and many FidoNews articles on that subject.
We have scheduled several 'fun' seminars, including a
"Moderator's RoundTable" to be hosted by Michele Hamilton, a
role-playing game seminar (and subsequent campaign!) hosted by
Karl Schinke, and a MIDI demonstration to be held by some of our
local gurus!
Also, don't forget the 'costume ball' to be held at the local
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament. Come and eat roast
chicken as they did hundreds of years ago while you cheer your
champion knight to glory in contests of speed, skill, and daring!
Afterwards, dance the night away at the in-house disco. (The
ball is an requires an entrance fee of $50, which includes your
costume for the ball!) Those of you in California and Florida
know how exciting this show is. Tell your friends!
FidoNews 7-22 Page 3 28 May 1990
There are several fun contests with great prizes in the works.
Watch FidoNews for details to be available soon!
With all the early registrations, this FidoCon looks to be the
biggest ever, so be sure to get your reservations in soon!
Bill VanGlahn, FIDOCON '90 Committee Chairman
1:1/90@FidoNet
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FidoNews 7-22 Page 4 28 May 1990
Donn Bly (1:236/7)
Region 11 RC Election Coordinator
Region 11 is electing a new RC. The old RC, John Summers, has
accepted a job in another region. In an attempt to get the rules
for the election out to as many region 11 sysops as possible, and
since there are probably quite a few of you who are interested in
how we are running things here in Region 11, we are posting the
election rules here.
---------------------------
Region 11 RC Election Rules
---------------------------
1. All sysops listed as members of region 11 in FidoNet nodelist
138 for 1990 are eligible to vote. Eligibility is by sysop, not
system, and no single individual may cast more than one vote.
Only sysops actually listed in the nodelist may cast a vote.
2. All sysops listed as members of region 11 running a public
system in FidoNet nodelist 138 for the year 1990 are eligible to
run in this election. Current net coordinators may nominate
themselves. Non-NC's must be nominated by a region 11 NC, not
necessarily their NC, and I must receive the nomination from the
NC making the nomination. Please send all nominations to 1:236/7.
All coordinators are urged to nominate any qualified candidate
who requests such nomination.
3. Each person nominated, and the NC in question if the nominee
is not an NC, will receive a net mail message from me confirming
that I have received the nomination. This note will either
confirm the nomination is valid, or if it is not valid, will
state the reason. If you do not receive such a message within 72
hours of sending it to me, please inform me immediately so the
nomination can be resubmitted.
4. Nominations will be accepted until 18:00 EST June 2, 1990.
Nominations received after the cutoff point will be rejected
regardless of reason.
5. The ballot of valid candidates will be sent to all nodes in
region 11 (as listed in FidoNet nodelist 138) and will be posted
in the REGION11 echomail area as soon as possible after 18:00
EST, June 2, 1990. (These messages will be sent via host-routed
netmail.)
6. The period for campaigning by each candidate will extend from
the time they receive my confirmation of their nomination until
the end of the voting period.
7. The period of voting will extend from 18:00 EST, June 2, 1990,
to 18:00 EST, June 16, 1990. Each sysop should net mail his
completed ballot to FidoNet 1:236/7. Each ballot received will be
noted in a receipt sent by me via host-routed netmail. (The
receipt will not contain the name of the candidate for whom you
voted.) If you do not receive a confirmation of your vote within
FidoNews 7-22 Page 5 28 May 1990
72 hours, please contact me via net mail immediately. No ballots
will be accepted after the deadline for any reason.
8. Each ballot received at 1:236/7 may contain exactly one vote
for one accepted candidate. Write-in votes and otherwise invalid
ballots will be returned along with their reason for rejection to
the sender. Each voter should also enter onto the ballot an eight
(8) character alphanumeric codeword by which the voter wishes to
be identified when the votes are made public. No ballot will be
accepted without this codeword. Abstention will be a not be a
valid option on the ballot, and all ballots not containing a vote
for one of the listed candidates will be rejected. Once a valid
ballot has been received from a eligible voter, no further
ballots will be accepted from that voter.
9. At 18:00 EST, June 16, 1990, the votes will be counted and the
winner will be made known to the zone 1 coordinator and placed in
the REGION11 echomail area. The winner is the candidate receiving
the majority of votes cast.
10. In the case that there is no candidate with a majority of
votes cast, a run-off will be conducted between the candidates
with the two highest numbers of votes. In the event of a tie for
the highest number of votes, all candidates with that number of
votes will participate in the run-off election. In the event of a
single candidate with the highest number of votes and a tie for
second highest number of votes, the candidate with the highest
number of votes and all candidates with the second highest number
of votes will participate in the run-off.
11. In the event a run-off is necessary, the period of voting
will run from 18:00 EST, June 16, 1990 to 18:00 EST, June 23,
1990. The ballot of valid candidates will be sent to all
eligible nodes in region 11 (as listed in FidoNet nodelist 138)
and will be posted in the REGION11 echomail area as soon as
possible.
12. The winner of the run-off will be made known to the zone 1
coordinator and announced in the REGION11 echomail area. Should
the first run-off election result in no candidate receiving a
majority of the votes cast, then run-off elections will be held
every seven days until a candidate receives a majority of the
votes cast. Rule 10 above will determine who is eligible to
participate in each run-off.
13. The vote tallies for each candidate will be made public at
the end of the main voting period, and, if necessary, the end of
the runoff voting period(s). A list of all nodes voting, and a
list of all codewords, together with the candidate for whom each
codeword voted, will be posted in the REGION11 conference and
made available for download or file-request from 1:236/7 as
R11VOTE.TXT. Under no conditions will the true identity of the
person represented by any codeword be made public. I will archive
all nominations, receipts for and rejections of nominations,
ballots received, and receipts for and rejections of ballots,
together with the vote totals into an encrypted archive to be
FidoNews 7-22 Page 6 28 May 1990
kept for at least one year by me, Donn Bly. This archive, along
with its encryption key will be turned over to the current (at
the time I receive the request) FidoNet zone 1 coordinator upon
my receiving a signed written request that I do so. Under no
circumstances whatever will it ever be turned over to anyone
else.
14. After the election is over, a period for comments about the
election will be opened. During this period suggestions on how
to run the next RC election will be taken and considered. A
modified set of rules (if any such modifications are deemed
necessary) will be drafted and submitted to the new RC for use in
the next election. This topic will be discussed in more detail
at a later time.
Donn Bly (1:236/7)
Region 11 RC Election Coordinator
These rules originally written by Rick Moore, 1:115/333, and
reflect modifications by Steve Bonine, Peter Hru, and Donn Bly.
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FidoNews 7-22 Page 7 28 May 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 7-22 Page 8 28 May 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
Here in Net 124/130 land, we have a monthly Pizza Party. We
alternate the location, so everybody has to drive a long ways
most of the time. We talk about problems and features and
whatever the mood suits.
On this occasion, we discussed the pending US Robotics HST's
V.42bis upgrade, relative merits of building your own PC and
the fine art of dealing with policemen who have pulled you over
on traffic violations. Of course, with 20 people showing up,
you don't get hear everything, but quite often the words CONFIG
and USER float across the room.
It's neat to meet the faces behind the names you read. Funny,
you don't hear any flames.
I ate and drank mightily, noting the Apple Strudel Pizza, and
Cinnamon Toast Pizza. Actually I hadn't eaten in 3 days, so
this was the Pizza Party that SAVED MY LIFE !
Free Spaghetti --
You know those solicitous letters with the postage paid return
envelopes. I got one from a 'RECOVERY' company; they said they
had found 169 bucks that the state of Texas owes me, and would
show me how to get it for 29 bucks. I was so outraged, I
included a strand of spaghetti in the envelope !
The other night, I get a phone call about it. No mention of
the spaghetti, but since I denied having sent it back, he said
he'd send another letter. <smirk> I got it today, so I
stuffed everything back in and also a STOP SMOKING solicitation
postcard.
I wonder how many times this will work ?!
Computer Underground --
Every heard of this? I hadn't, until someone uploaded several
newsletters to MY BBS. I started looking at the latest issue,
and frankly, I don't know what to think. There's some bunch
trying to SUE THE FBI because their E-mail was wrongfully
confiscated in a search for missing body parts at a cryogenics
company. HOLY WRATH OF KHAN, BATMAN ! Right, Boy Wonder, it's
LAWYER CITY.
FidoNews 7-22 Page 11 28 May 1990
Some other issues list out dozens of E-mail Networks that seem
a bit on the shady side, I never heard of any of 'em. Adding
to my concerns was the BIG BUST here in Plano, where they
nailed a bunch of modem users passing around Telco auth codes
and such. It's getting downright dangerous to own a modem.
Southwest Bell was reportedly checking BBS listings !
So what would you do ? I didn't know the guy that uploaded the
newsletters, so I moved them offline. Paranoia ? Probably.
These people have the right idea with a completely wrong
approach... sort of a Kent State mentality.
Thank God It's Monday --
I had one of those wonderful weekends, where nothing was
planned, and I could just loaf around and get some rest. HA.
Saturday morning, I get called to work, the accounting
adjustments have not arrived over our backbone network. At
noon, I get the request to write a program to stuff the numbers
into our database. I told them, "I have a computer conference
at 1", which of course, was my life saving Pizza Party. About
4 I get home and someone's over looking to buy the old car.
After two hours, they don't even buy it.
About 6, my boss calls, and I tell them, "I'm about half done".
Honey comes in and tells me we're leaving at 6:30 for a
surprise anniversary party; sure surprised me. I get home at
10 and call my boss, "I'm testing it now". Get everyone off to
bed, it's 11 and I finally sit down to start. Didn't have one
line of code written.
At midnight I'm compiling the program in San Angelo; this is
PC Anywhere from home to office, and IRMA from office to the
mainframe. Fortunately, I only had one bug. Unfortunately, at
1 AM the database goes down for maintenance. At 2:30 it's back
up, and I start the adjustments, and at 4 it's finally done.
You know, I used to could stay up all night, easy. Now, it
hurts. I have no idea why...
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FidoNews 7-22 Page 12 28 May 1990
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.
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FidoNews 7-22 Page 15 28 May 1990
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.
7 Oct 1991
Area code 415 fragments. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties
will begin using area code 510. This includes Oakland,
FidoNews 7-22 Page 16 28 May 1990
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.
