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. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
A New Computer Magazine .................................. 1
Region17 FidoCon Preliminary Program ..................... 3
Region17 Registration Form ............................... 6
Announcing Socrates BBS System v1.00 ..................... 9
NEW! FidoCon '90 Registration Form ....................... 12
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 14
Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 14
3. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 17
Latest Software Versions ................................. 17
4. NOTICES .................................................. 20
And more!
FidoNews 7-28 Page 1 9 Jul 1990
I would like to take this opportunity to let the world know that
there is soon to be an exciting new magazine in San Diego. It is
so new that it doesn't even have a name yet. Oh, we've toyed
with a few ideas, and I'm sure one will land on it soon, but for
now we just want to let you know what is happening and see if you
would like to be involved.
Our goal is to be a free, locally run, news magazine for the
computing community, available at computer stores, electronically,
at local libraries and, frankly, anywhere else where someone will
put us on their counter, in front of their store, on the hood of
their car...
We would like to have the standard assortment of reading fare:
Columns dealing with specific computers; Q & A; an extensive BBS
list as well as an "on-line" column; information about user
groups; cartoons; informative, educational and humorous articles
on any computer-related subject.
So there it is, an invitation to be part of a new magazine right
from the start. You don't have to live in San Diego to be a part
of it, you just have to have something that would be of interest
to our readers. Any submission you may deem appropriate will be
reviewed and will more than likely get in, as our requirements
are pretty much "if you write it, we'll print it." *
* That is, if it makes sense to SOMEBODY! :-) *
If you are, or would like to be, a writer or cartoonist, send
us an example of your work. Be warned it may get used, so send
only things you would like to have included.
If you have a BBS send us your information. Name, number, hours,
baud rates etc. If you have or belong to a user group send us
your information.
If you have any advice for us (good or bad) send it along.
If you think we're nuts... let us know.
If you're nuts... let us know.
We're pretty flexible in Net105; if _this_ works, we may even consider
hosting FidoCon '91! Meanwhile, here's our loose agenda for R17Con
(thanks to the Program Director):
Preliminary Program
27-29 July 1990
Friday 27 July - Evening
--------------------------
Dinner
R17 Echomail: Philosophy, Procedures, and Funding
As echomail is always a prominent topic, and we have had a
recent scare or two, it is worth discussing the philosophy,
procedures, and economics of how we move echomail within the
region.
General Socializing
Saturday 28 July - Day
--------------------------
Breakfast
Product Presentations (each will be time limited as this is not
a commercial meeting)
o Hardware
at least one modem manufacturer will be announcing a new
product with interesting pricing and features
o FidoNetware
Bink's and Opus's hackers will be here, and others are
deciding
o Users may talk about those goodies whose authors/vendors are
not present
Lunch
How we do it in our Net
A R17Con tradition where some of the local nets describe some
of the unique aspects of technology, procedures, financing,
sex, ... in their local nets.
Tricks of the Trade
o Technical Questions and Answers
a select panel of techies will answer questions (with help
and jeering from the floor) about netware, modems, and
FidoNews 7-28 Page 4 9 Jul 1990
hiding the expenses from the SO
Dinner
Saturday 28 July - Evening
--------------------------
Curmudgeon Tossing Contest
Rules have been published in FidoNews. Matt Whelan, IC, may
donate one Get Out of Excommunication Free card to be awarded
to the winning team.
General Socializing
Sunday 29 July - Morning
--------------------------
Breakfast
Plans for Next Year's Meeting
which net will be the victim?
when should it be held?
cost and other constraints
General Gab and Wind-down and Other Things we've Forgotten
Loosely Scheduled
--------------------------
Diskette Throwing Contest
This traditional hotly contested event will have to be
scheduled on an ad hoc basis, as the Columbia Gorge, though
beautiful, has frequent winds. Please remember that diskettes
must be unaltered 5.25" disks, and accuracy is more important
than distance.
Dweeb Throwing Contest
This new continuous event is open to both team and individual
players, but no points are awarded unless you can provoke the
dweeb into posting at least one embarrassingly inept echomail
flame first.
W A R N I N G
--------------------------
After much Net-1:105 and Region-1:17 discussion, it was agreed
to hold this meeting at Menucha, despite the restriction that no
drop-in attendees would be possible. It was felt that Menucha's
great facilities and scandalously low prices (you can do the
entire meeting for about $75 including meals and accommodation!)
were worth this retriction.
FidoNews 7-28 Page 5 9 Jul 1990
This means that cruising up for the afternoon will not work.
You either register for the meeting (one and two day plans are
available), or "it's tough tamales."
================================================================
| 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 7-28 Page 8 9 Jul 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.
Software Review: Save the Planet
By Kevin Johnson, 141/552.2
This is my first fidonews article, so you'll have to bear
with me if it isn't perfect.
A while ago, I ran across a piece of software that I thought
was worth telling others about. I found the software on my
boss node, 1:141/552.0. It's available there for file-request
or download if you're interested, and I'm sure it's on dozens
of other BBS's across the country.
The program was called _Save the Planet_ and it bills itself
as an "Environmental Database on Global Warming and Ozone
Depletion." It is all that and more!
It is written by Roger & Kathy Cox of Pitkin, Colorado. For
this article all the usual disclaimers apply: I don't work for
them, we don't own stock in some joint company, et cetera, et
cetera. And please don't let my lack of writing skills reflect
on the program. I just want to tell you all about this fine
piece of shareware software called _Save the Planet_.
Save the Planet (hereby referred to as STP) is "green"
software. It is designed to inform people about the
environment in a truly innovative way.
The program runs on any sort of monitor, it worked just fine
on my CGA setup, and it'll run on anything from monochrome to
the best VGA displays. It requires 512k of RAM. The program
opens with a title screen and it shows a computer simulation
of the growth of the hole in the ozone layer in Antarctica from
1985-1987. Seeing this graphically is really shocking. That
hole's definitely gotten much bigger in two years!
On the main menu of STP it displays lettered options for all
of the program's choices. The main menu is divided into two
categories, "Looking at the problem" and "Taking action to
solve it."
Under "Looking at the problem" it explains what global
warming is and about things such as CFC's and most of the
other environmental buzzwords that you hear. Included in
the explanations are graphs of different things. There's such
things as a list of books you can read for more information and
much, much more. There's even a "game" (if you could call
something so serious a game - the program calls it that so
that's what I'll call it too) or a model of how the earth will
be effected by reducing or not reducing carbon dioxide
emissions over the next 50 years. The game lets you see what
will happen if we choose not to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
or what will happen at various levels of reduction.
FidoNews 7-28 Page 11 9 Jul 1990
On the "Taking action to solve it" side of the menu, there
is really some good stuff. Included here is a complete
database of how every one of our congresspersons voted on
environmental matters. You can look up to see how your Senator
and/or Congressperson voted. Included also is a listing of
various environmental groups -- both major and minor -- and
their particular areas of interest, if they have any. There's
also a mini-word processor to write your congressperson a
letter telling them how you feel about the environment.
There's sections on things like tips on how you can save
energy, learn about recycling, be a more envionmental-concious
consumer and much, much more.
The program is really well done and all data in the program
are from established sources. I've barely scratched the
surface of what is available in the program, but hopefully it
is enough to make you want to see what the program really has
to offer. For such an important topic this program does a fine
job of educating people about what is at stake if we do not
get serious about protecting our environment and changing our
lifestyles to become more environmentally-concious.
Look for Save the Planet on your local bulletin board, I
found version 1.14 as STP.ZIP and the archive was 188k. Or
you may reach the authors at:
Save the Planet Shareware
P.O. Box 45
Pitkin, CO 81241
(303) 641-5035
The registration for the program is $15 which includes a
free updated version which will come out after the fall
elections. A Macintosh version is supposed to be released
this summer.
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: (Hotel rooms cannot be guaranteed if you
register after July 1st!)
A. Single Occupancy...................$545.00
B. Double Occupancy...................$400.00
C. Conference w/ meals................$250.00
D. Conference w/ Banquet..............$105.00
E. Conference only.....................$75.00
F. Banquet only........................$30.00
G. Registrant & Spouse................$670.00
Plans A B & G include all conference and hotel fees and meals.
Prices are for pre-registrants using this form only.
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 7-28 Page 13 9 Jul 1990
F I D O - C O N '90 R E G I S T R A T I O N F O R M
My favorite computer store has a 14 day money back guarantee.
I go there 26 times a year !
So Friday afternoon, I was in there returning a 286 clone.
Some kind of goofy VLSI chip on the motherboard was trying to
do EVERYTHING, and was latching the IRQ I needed, even though
I'd clearly set the 'disable' jumper correctly.
Those VLSI chips are neat, until you realize that if it goes
bad, well forget the whole motherboard, it's worthless. Give me
everything on the slot cards and socketed chips as well. But
then, that's another CAT FIGHT.
I picked out a slightly more reasonable 286 clone, for slightly
more money, and cruised through the rest of the store on the
way to the cashier.
'Honey Interrupt' : Oh, I see, you'll shop the computer store,
but you won't shop for shoes with me. Hmmph !
He's at Midfield --
So anyways, I see this Hand SCANNER/OCR package sitting right
there. Shoot, there's dozens of them. I grab it, pay for it (
and the new clone ), and head on home. I've been looking for
this for weeks.
Later that evening, I'm plugging in the bus card, and checking
it all out, when young Kevin ( the Asst-sysop ) just sort of
APPEARS. Like from out of no where. I start the DOS scanner
program, and pull the scanner across a color photo of him.
First scan, perfect, and his jaw drops off watching his FACE
scroll onto the screen.
You could see his little four year old muscles start twitching;
hear his brain cells whirring, trying to figure a way to get at
this 'toy' without getting Dad all riled up about breakage,
dirt, expense, you know, all the things that keep him from
playing with everything else I own.
FidoNews 7-28 Page 15 9 Jul 1990
'Honey Interrupt' : ( Also appearing out of no where. ) So, how
much did it cost ?
So next I set up the paint/scan program and he recognizes the
'paint game' immediately. I started scanning another picture
of him into the paint program window, and then : QEMM
EXCEPTION ! SET DMA=91.
These are the absolute worst kinds of problems. No not the
software, the anxious kid in your face who wants to know when
if it's fixed after every keystroke. A quick look at the
Desqview book, and VIOLA : set the DMA buffer smaller. I went
ahead and set it to 64 (k) in case Binkley decides to pull a
fancy swap move.
He's at The Goal Box --
Well finally, I get back to the paint program, and hand it over
to Mr. Hopping With Delight. When he gets going, I just get
out.
'Honey Interrupt' : Want to see what *I* bought today ?
Sure, I say. Out comes some new boots. New Cowgirl boots at
that. New Nieman Marcus Cowgirl boots. ( Hey wait a second. )
New Lizard-skin Nieman Marcus ITALIAN Cowgirl boots. Groan.
How much did those cost ?
She: How much did your new computer toy cost ?
So you're thinking "Why did he buy a 286 ?" You're just like
the damn salesmen at the store. I'm gonna make a ROCK VIDEO,
all right?. In the final scene, we pour gasoline on it and it
goes up in a huge fireball. OK, man ? Where's your 20 inch
monitors?
The truth is even better. I'm selling a turnkey system to a
big giant corporation and the order calls for an AT compatible,
color monitor and 80 meg hard disk. So an AT is a 286. I did
get a nice VGA package, though. Could'a stiffed them with CGA,
but hey, I'm a nice guy. I used the starch sparingly.
It's a Shot on Goal --
So in comes the 'Scan Master' with a piece of printer paper.
Where did you learn to print ? It's the button next to the
Coke can, Dad. ( What Coke can ? )
I look at the paper, and there *I* am, with a scary hairdo,
eyes like dead cartoon characters ( x x ), a huge beard and
some kind of arrow/stick which appears to have entered at the
back of my neck and come out through my stomach. When FIDONEWS
goes graphic, I'll send it to ya.
FidoNews 7-28 Page 16 9 Jul 1990
Finally, he get's off to bed, and I get to play with the OCR.
It works ! It's actually pretty good at recognizing
characters. This program does not use specific font matching,
so you don't get to 'train' the recognition function. The
post-match routine just gives you a picture of the unrecognized
character ( usually two characters stuck together ), and you
type in the two characters, or whatever it takes.
I'm a real fast typist, and I believe I can get about two times
that character rate per minute using the
scan/recognize/correction cycle. I can't wait to use the
pictures in some desktop publishing.
'Honey Interrupt' : When are you coming to bed ?
Me : Are you going to wear your new boots ?
Her: Are you going to look at your computer all night ?
Me : I'll turn off the computer if you take off the boots.
Her: I'll take back the boots if you take back the computer.
Me : OK.
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.
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 !
15 Jul 1990
Michael Keller, sysop of 1:170/401, will be wedded to Ruby Morain.
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.
17 Aug 1990
Start of first ever Searchlight SysOps convention in Chicago, IL.
Contact Marge Robbins at 1:283/120 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,
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.
FidoNews 7-28 Page 21 9 Jul 1990
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.
5 Jun 1997
David Dodell's 40th Birthday
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
The OpLine BBS / Health and Nutrition Opinion Line at 1:11/15 in
Evansville, IN. is sponsoring a new NUTRITION Echo. The
Conference Moderator is Harvey Wyche. Messages on the NUTRITION
Echo deal with food and nutrition issues as they relate to good
health.
NUTRITION functions as an open forum for the expression of ideas
and opinions as well as the exchange of news and helpful hints
about nutrition and diet. The Echo is not part of any diet,
weight loss center, or nutritional program. One of the special
features of the Echo is the weekly posting of requested Nutrient
Analyses of common foods (including many fast food items).
David Dodell at St. Joes Hospital at 1:114/15 has offered to act
as HUB for the NUTRITION Echo. If you would like to participate
in the Echo, please contact me via netmail at 1:11/15. I will
advise you as to when the feed for your system has been
activated.
Your participation is most welcome. We look forward to hearing
from you within the Echo. Thank you.
