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1986-08-24
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Volume 3, Number 32 25 August 1986
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1.
Copyright (C) 1986, 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.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate.
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL
What a Weekend!
2. ARTICLES
A Colorado Springs Diary
Butch Walker Speaks Out
Josh Gordon Chimes In
A Voice from the Mist
Message encryption utility
Poems of a Fido teenage user
Dealing with Seagate
3. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
Metro-Fire Fido Dines Out!
Mailcost 1.4 - Outgoing Host Accounting Program Updated
Fidonews Page 2 25 Aug 1986
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
What a Weekend!
Now that I've been back home a few days, I think I've recovered
enough to write about the conference. I had planned on borrowing
a PC on Sunday and writing something for last weeks newsletter
about it, but I was so exhausted from three nights of less than
five hours sleep per (often MUCH less) that I just wasn't up to
it. Last weeks newsletter got delayed anyway due to yet another
modem glitch, so it's probably just as well.
All in all I'd say it went pretty well. I certainly would not
have missed it for anything! It was a bit long to substitute
caffeine for sleep, but it was worth it.
There were quite a lot of rough edges. Nobody involved had ever
run a conference before, and it did show once in awhile. Also,
the whole thing got started so late that we didn't get first call
on the rooms. We were constantly being pushed out by the hotel
management to make room for a wedding reception, or some such.
Still, COSUG did a masterful job.
Also, COSUG got most of it either on tape, videotape, or both.
They volunteered in a moment of weakness to transcribe it all for
a series of FidoNews columns, and I mercilessly pounced, so keep
your eyes on this newsletter in the coming weeks.
But many people recovered even faster than I did. I got home to
find no less than four articles about the conference waiting for
me. I'm including them in this issue, along with anything else I
may get before the deadline. As you'll see, quite a lot of
controversy got stirred up. Also, quite a few solid points were
made.
It says I'm the editor, so I guess I'll be editorial and express
some opinions. Here are my thoughts about what happened that was
the most significant:
1) Randy Bush presented the report of the FidoNet Technical
Standards Committee. This is a group that has been engaged in
documenting what FidoNet is and how it works. Not the
politics -- just the stuff that goes over the phone line. You
know, technical stuff. This will have, I predict, long range
impact for many years to come. Expect to see a whole crop of
FidoNet compatible software coming down the pike. Two cases I
know of: Bob Hartman (who recovered VERY fast) took only two
days to come up with a primitive FidoNet mailer based on the
spec, so we know it works. And Phil Becker (author of TBBS)
was seen floating around, and now has a copy of the specs, so
you can probably expect TBBS to start doing netmail before
long.
Fidonews Page 3 25 Aug 1986
2) A great many people expressed concern that Ken Kaplan is
becoming too remote from the day-to-day hurly burly of being a
sysop. I don't really see how that could be, but he's
certainly going to be more accessible in the future. Step one
of this is:
3) An echomail conference is being established for IFNA business.
Mike Hamilton will be coordinating it, and since in any given
group Mikey will be representative of the dissident elements,
it will certainly be an open (and active) conference. Contact
Mikey at 103/501 if you want to link into the free-for-all.
4) We absolutely MUST do this again! At least four nets offered
to sponsor next year's conference. Even COSUG offered to do
it again (they must be real gluttons for punishment!)
All in all, it was an interesting and stimulating experience. I
have no doubt that you'll be reading a great deal about it in the
weeks to come. One word of caution, though: Please keep in mind
that you are hearing second hand reports, and in many cases you
are hearing about things that were suggested or discussed. Most
of what got discussed will never actually take place.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 4 25 Aug 1986
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Bob Hartman, 132/101
A Colorado Springs Diary
I can't believe that it has been 4 days since I returned from
Colorado Springs. In that time I have not yet seen any mention
about what happened out there. Perhaps this is due to normal lag
time, but perhaps it is just that no one has taken the bull by
the horns and set it down in writing. Well, I guess I'll do it
if no one else will. This will probably turn out to be a couple
of messages long, so bear with me as we go through the 4 days of
the birth of IFNA.
Thursday 8/14/86:
This was the first day of the conference, and it was pretty
strange to see the looks on the faces of all of the people when
they met each other. It was kind of a game to see whether or not
the person you were meeting looked the same as you had pictured
them. There was a general BS session, a large party at the SEA
(Thom Henderson) suite, complete with some munchies and drinks
(right here and now I would like to thank everyone at SEA for the
hospitality they gave all weekend long!), there was the usual
announcements about who was there, who would be talking, etc. It
was a small prelude to what was in the future. Most of the early
attendees made it a late night, but those who started IFNA made
it a 4am night!
Friday 8/15/86:
The first real day of the conference! The entire IFNA entourage
was introduced (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, Thom Henderson, Tom
Jennings, and Henk Wevers). There was an interesting talk by
Allen Miller about running multiple Fidos on one system using
MultiLink. USRobotics made a presentation on 9600 baud modems
(which was pretty disappointing to me - it seems that each
manufacturer has its own standard, and a Hayes for example may
not talk to a USR). Henk Wevers from the Netherlands, and Frank
Thornley from the UK spoke about communications in Europe (I must
admit that I missed that one). Tom Jennings gave us all a
preview of Fido version 12 (just a talk, not a demo). If you
thought that switching from nodes to net/nodes was bad, wait for
version 12 when we switch to zone:net/node!!! The new version
has a lot of bugs fixed, and can support a much larger number of
nodes. It is now also configured the same way that SEAdog is -
with a config file instead of those cryptic command line
switches. After the evening dinner, Ezra Shapiro ("formerly" of
BYTE magazine - he still does some stuff for them I guess) spoke
about the microcomputer industry in general. It was quite
interesting.
Fidonews Page 5 25 Aug 1986
Personally during this day I jumped over the fence in terms of my
involvement with IFNA. I went to the conference as a speaker,
but mostly I went to represent my network as just another sysop.
During the day I met with Randy Bush and got a sneak preview of
the IFNA documentation of the FidoNet mail protocol. Ben Baker
half jokingly asked if when I received the document I would take
Rovermsg from being a message system to being the full Fido clone
that I had started out to write. Well, needless to say I thought
about it and decided that I probably would. That was probably a
mistake, but the next thing I knew I was on the Fido Standards
Committee, and was told I would be the "document tester" by
actually implementing the stuff. Now all of a sudden I was
almost an integral part of IFNA, and I had to look at things from
a slightly different perspective.
Another major milestone during the day was when it became public
knowledge that there were IFNA membership forms being circulated
and that it would cost $25 to be a VOTING member of IFNA. Note
that it says VOTING member.
Saturday 8/16/86:
There were several talks this day. The first was by Andy Foray
(I hope I got that right) from SEA on the internals of ARC.
Since he had to run a little bit overtime I guess people were
very interested. Next came my talk on the UNIX Gateway that I
run. Then was probably the most interesting talk of the weekend,
Dave Hughes spoke about the NAPLPS graphics environment. I don't
really want to talk too much about it, but if you are interested
in graphics, you should probably read up on NAPLPS. Well, all of
that happened before lunch, then the S**T hit the fan!
The lunch time meeting was supposed to be the first annual
business meeting for a new non-profit organization called the
International FidoNet Association (IFNA). Well it was quite a
fiasco. I don't think that anyone had any idea about what was
going to unfold. As a little bit of background, it was not yet
clear what the $25 paid the day before was actually going to
cover. It was unclear what constituted an IFNA member. It was
unclear what the goals of IFNA were. In general, there were only
5-6 people who knew anything, and they were all at the podium,
not in the audience. Well, George Wing from COSUG (who is a
lawyer) tried to explain what the IFNA Articles of Incorporation
said (there are three board members Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, and
Thom Henderson - only because those are the only addresses Ken
had when he went to the lawyer to draw up the papers). George
did not expect that anything would go differently from other
start-up meetings where in general the membership is asked
whether this is ok, and everyone says yes. Well in this case he
did the usual thing, asking for those that were for this, and
those that were against. The aye's won. In theory IFNA was now
born. Then many people wanted to have discussion on the matter.
The term "railroaded" came up many times. Since we were about to
get kicked out of the lunch room, it was decided that the vote
was null and void, and that the meeting would continue in the
afternoon sessions. Basically the only thing resolved was that
Fidonews Page 6 25 Aug 1986
it became obvious that the opposition was not a lone individual,
but a fairly sizable group of sysops (the aye's barely won in the
first "railroaded" vote).
In order to give people a chance to settle down, Randy Bush then
spoke (as scheduled) on the Fido Standards Committee. It was the
first time that many of the sysops realized that there was a
movement to document everything. It was interesting, and I can
say from personal involvement that Randy has been doing a great
job. He should get a medal for what he has been able to
accomplish. I nominate him for the First Annual Fido Citizen of
the Year!
After Randy spoke it was time for the S**T hitting the fan part
II. To keep people under control, Ezra Shapiro volunteered to be
the chairperson for the meeting (he did an excellent job, and is
first runner-up to Randy for Fido Citizen of the Year, he may
have won it except he is no longer a sysop). This meeting lasted
for a couple of hours with everyone speaking their piece on what
they thought of IFNA. It was an extremely emotional session, and
it is very hard for me to remember the details. Suffice it to
say that in the end the vote was to have the Board of Directors
that are on the original Articles of Incorporation be the
temporary board until January 1, 1987. Their task is to create
the by-laws for IFNA. This will include what constitutes a
member, who can vote, what the IFNA goals are, etc. Basically on
January 1, they are supposed to have ready for a general vote,
what some people thought should have been ready for this meeting.
I would just like to say that Ezra Shapiro summed it up best by
closing the session with a statement that said (as near as I
remember it) "I just want to go on the record as saying that if
these 3 guys [Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker, and Thom Henderson] f**k up,
I am going to be the first to jump all over them. It would be
the downfall of the net, and that can't be allowed to happen". I
am sure that I shouldn't have used quotes, but whoever has the
tape recording of the meeting can transcribe what was really
said.
After all of the excitement of the day, the evening was spent at
the Flying W Ranch where a good time was had by all. Then came
wind-down time where individuals met and discussed things that
had not yet been said, etc. Again the SEAdog suite was the prime
meeting place. It was really the final time that you could get
together with anyone that was at the conference. Sunday 8/17/86:
The morning had a trip on the Cog Railway up to the top of Pike's
Peak. It was a good trip, and it was nice to really see what
Colorado had to offer. Most of us had spent 3 straight days in
the Hilton talking, although my wife has since informed me that
Colorado Springs was a very interesting place - I'll have to go
back some time.
General Comments and Personal Observations:
First and foremost I guess I would like to say that this meeting
showed that FidoNet is alive (although not quite as well as it
Fidonews Page 7 25 Aug 1986
could be). Those sysops that did not attend should be quite
disappointed. Next year we should all attend. The 10% turnout
for this one was probably larger than expected, but with enough
advance warning and preparation we should probably shoot for 50%
next year. We all have a personal stake in this thing.
Secondly I would like to clarify what I believe is the position
IFNA is taking on the nodelist. It was clear from the meeting
that the major cost of running IFNA is NOT the distribution of
the nodelist. I repeat, the major cost is NOT the distribution
of the nodelist. The major cost is in phone calls dealing with
people who want to know more about Fido, and in answering the
mail people send to inquire about Fido. Since the preparation of
the nodelists is semi-automatic, and regional coordinators POLL
IFNA for it, the cost of distribution is not what is hurting
them. Anyway, after spending about 1 1/2 hours of a 2 hour
flight from Colorado Springs to St. Louis talking with Ken Kaplan
and his wife Sally, I think that what is "official" policy is
that it will not cost anyone to be in the nodelist! It will cost
a sysop, or anyone else $25 to be a VOTING member of IFNA. This
will entitle you to vote on future directions of the
organization, and also to use additional IFNA services (which are
many and varied and will be implemented as time/money allow).
According to Ken, the only way that money will be charged for
entry into the nodelist will be if it becomes absolutely
necessary to slow the growth of the network for technical
reasons. This is based on the assumption that enough people will
join IFNA based on their "extra services". If this is not the
case, then to generate the revenue required to keep Ken, Ben,
etc. from going broke helping people, it may come to paying to
get into the nodelist. I may be naive, but it seems to me that
$25 to be a voting member is a good deal. I certainly have asked
$25 worth of questions since becoming a Fido sysop (I couldn't
have created RENUM or ROVERMSG without asking a lot of
questions).
A final observation: Ken, Ben and Thom are supposed to start an
Echomail conference dealing with what should be in the IFNA by-
laws. I haven't seen it started yet, so how about getting on the
stick guys. If we don't start now while things are fresh in our
minds we may lose a lot of input.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 8 25 Aug 1986
Here is the text of a message from Butch Walker (161/1) to Tom
Jennings regarding the Conference:
Tom-
You probably noticed that I wasn't in Colorado Springs. [grin].
I have only heard from 2 attendee's so far, but what I heard was
not encouraging. I was very upset to hear that proxy votes were
not accepted for those of us who could not attend. It seems to
me that the deck was stacked from the beginning, or am I missing
something?
Let me say, that I have no problem with you charging for Fido,
but I would like some more information along that line. For
example, what will the cost be, what constitutes a version, how
often will the documentation change, etc. One of the advantages
of the current system is that a potential Sysop can download
things, get his system setup and running and then apply to join
the net. If you are going to start charging for the software and
there will be no downloadable docs how does the new sysop come on
line? Also if IFNA is going to start charging for the nodelist,
do I start charging for helping a new node come on line? I mean
what the hell, let's all get greedy. Maybe I should start
charging for my services as a host?
What is IFNA going to do with the bucks it collects? What can I
and the members of my net expect in return other than the
nodelist, which is automated and without myself and the rest of
the hosts sending in our updates wouldn't exist anyway. Am I
going to be reimbursed for my costs in putting the nodelist
together? Or how about my costs to mail my changes in or to
download the nodelist and distribute it each week? I mean if
someone is going to make bucks off of my efforts, shouldn't I get
a piece of the pie? Are either you or IFNA going to provide
local support for my nodes when they need help or run into a
problem, how about to the brand new Sysop that wants to come on
line and join the net? Is IFNA going to hold his hand by phone
to get him on line the way I and some of my Hubs do now? Do we
maybe get a commission for the memberships we sell?
I will carbon copy this to Ken. I would appreciate some answers
to the above questions. After all we have an excellent medium
here for exchanging information, ideas, discussion and gathering
votes. What a novel idea, electronic communication!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 9 25 Aug 1986
Here is the text of a message from Josh Gordon (161/93) to Butch
Walker regarding the Conference:
Butch:
The article was interesting and about what I expected. I'm not
particularly concerned about the actual charges; it represents a
small portion of my phone bill, at any rate (though that might
not hold true for everyone), and wouldn't hurt me. The politics
are also not surprising; the lack of a published agenda and the
manipulation and secrecy by the folks with a vested interest is
the offensive part, and I'm more than willing to write that off
as small group dynamics in a semi-anarchist organization (i.e.,
FidoNet Sysops, as opposed to the inner core of IFNA czars).
However, we have certain defenses against this. IFNA (being by
definition a non-profit corporation) has to have certain things:
a set of by-laws is the most important. We (Fidonet sysops) are
the interested class, and it would be hard for the Comintern (oh,
sorry, the IFNA board) to do much of anything without most of the
Sysops agreeing. If they act heavy-handed enough, piss on them--
we can have our own goddamn network without ANYTHING on their
part. We don't need them at all unless we WANT them. So far the
services have been merely providing a nodelist; I've seen nothing
else. (Am I missing something?) And most of the tools and such
have been written by people working from pure love, without any
vested interests (except to get a nice tool for themselves.)
I think a period of reflection is called for now. I am more than
willing to pay TJ $20 for Fido and even another $19.95 for a
manual--in fact, I would have been happy to pay $19.95 for a
manual in the first place, rather than have to fool with that
obnoxiously formatted one that was published in the first place
(it ate up at least 2/5 of an hour of my time getting it right,
and my time is worth $50/hour minimum, so...) And $25/yr for IFNA
is also no big deal; nodes that don't want to pay that amount
essentially would have to get all their mail routed through their
hubs or hosts, and if they expected file transfers, they'd have
to tell the source of the transfer all the relevant info so that
the source could make a special entry in their xlatgen.ctl or
whatever. So it's not the potential disaster that Shackleford
implies. (I'm sure there will be a lot of loud screaming from the
Mikeys of the world. Tough.)
A few thoughts. If all of the Fidos in the world joined IFNA,
they would have $25,000 to mess around with every year. As a
non-profit organization, they'd have to do something appropriate
with that money. None of it should be spent for salaries or
anything like that; that's inappropriate, and would be grounds
for people to say "screw them". However, if the money was used
to cover phone bills of the hosts, then it would make a LOT of
sense. Hosts are paying a disproportionate share of the load, as
far as I can see; if there are (say) 100 hosts, then they'd each
get $250/yr relief for their phone bills. That's about the only
useful thing I can see such a large amount of money used for.
You might want to stick this letter in SYSOP or NET. I'll leave
Fidonews Page 10 25 Aug 1986
it up to you. I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I sure don't
need the political headaches of taking an activist stance on this
issue. But the most important thing is maintaining FidoNet as a
viable mode of communication; if the consensus really is that
$25/yr will keep the net up, then I'll happily pay it. Keyword
is CONSENSUS. Changing from an open, free system to a semi-
controlled system in midstream is fraught with peril. (On the
other hand, it might filter out the Mikeys and Traceys and Dobyns
of the world. Sadly, it might ALSO filter out the Shacklefords.
Oh well.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 11 25 Aug 1986
Grey Mist
Conference Report
Hoo boy! I'm tired! Lots has happened in the past few days, I
toured Garden of the Gods, went driving through the mountains
(them suckers are bigger than Texas Hill Country, a little) and
took a train ride up Pike's Peak. I also found out that Echomail
is a Fidonet Household word, we had 60-70 boards represented
there and during my presentation I asked how many were running
Echomail. 95% of them are! (where do I begin?) The first night,
things went well, I had arrived Wednesday night and played around
until the first session Thursday night. My wife had made me a
shirt with a BIG bullseye on it and the words "Echomail",
"Creator" on it. I wore that into the meeting and quietly sat
down near the front. I started hearing whispers and comments from
behind, some people laughing. Thom Henderson gave an opening
speech about Fidonet and such, and mentioned message traffic
going up but didn't say why. One guy shouted "Echomail!" from
the audience. They called for a round of applause for the success
of Fido (Tom Jenning didn't show until Friday). As it died down,
someone hollered, "How about a round of applause for the author
of Echomail?" Thom and the other people glanced around puzzled,
and then everyone around me started pointing at me and clapping.
I slowly stood up and turned around to everyone and when I turned
my back to the speaker podium, I thought Ben Baker and Thom were
going to die! They started making bow and arrow gestures at me.
And so it went. Everyone seemed to want to talk to me, everywhere
I went someone had a question or suggestion. Pretty neat, I had
no idea of the impact of Echomail. I figured maybe 30-40% would
have even heard of it, which I thought was pretty good. I got a
slew of notes for improvements in Echomail and a much better
understanding of how it is used. Some people NEED to host-rout
Echomail, for example.
My presentation of Echomail was shared with Rob Barker, author of
an Editorial in SYSOP about the quality of messages and such. He
spoke about avoiding messages which mean nothing out of context
of other messages, personal mail and such.
Tom Jennings spoke about Fido v12, due out the end of September,
I believe. It is a major rework with area-specific capabilities
lists, 'zones' to support growth of the nodelist (1:124/206),
1=USA, 2=UK. It will also come with a professionally done manual
for $35 or so, cost undetermined. No other docs will be
available, you pay or you don't have docs. There are no plans
for charging for v12 itself, although a very firm distinction was
made between IFNA and Fido Software Inc. Tom Jennings is the
sole owner, officer, etc. of Fido Software, Inc and may do or
charge anything he wishes. If he wishes to charge IFNA for
additional code, then he may. IFNA will not be charging for v12.
Everything went smoothly until Saturday... Then things blew
apart! Mikey was causing troubling everytime I turned around.
At the Business Meeting/Luncheon, IFNA attempted to railroad us.
Fidonews Page 12 25 Aug 1986
Now, such railroading was meant in good intentions. (I.E.
Railroading is the performance of some act for or to someone else
without their permission or control. It says nothing about the
act being good or bad for either party).
George Wing waved the Articles of Confederation that Ken Kaplan
had already filed to form IFNA and asked for a confirming vote.
No discussion as to what IFNA meant, its rules, etc. Oh, and the
day before, we were offered membership forms for $25 to join
IFNA. If you did not pay, you can't vote in the business meeting.
But at the luncheon, everyone was hollering and banging on tables
and such. Mikey wanted discussion, wanted to know what IFNA
intended to do, etc. George was flustered, Thom got quite angry
etc. George kept saying, "This is just Business BS, lets approve
it and get on with the more important things. We have to leave
this room in 35 minutes, we don't have TIME to discuss it. Its
just lawyer BS, you don't care about it." He was shouted down.
He had called for a vote without stating WHO could vote, when
asked he said, "Well, only those who have paid". That upset
other people who wanted to pay, but wanted to FIND OUT WHAT IFNA
WAS FIRST. Tom Jennings stated that these people (Ken, Ben,
etc.) had been running Fidonet for 2.5 years, and that they could
keep on running it. Mikey wanted to expel Ken Kaplan from the
Board of Directors (Ken Kaplan, Ben Baker and Thom Henderson, 3-
member board). It was suggested that they expand the board and
George, etc. just said, "Look. Lets just confirm this paper and
we can change it later. Once the paper is filed, we can change
any of the terms, etc. Its just a formality.", but the problem
was the paper didn't tell who could vote, how to make changes,
etc. Without a framework for graceful change, relying on the
good will of the officers, no one wanted to accept it. And the
officers were offended that no one would simply pay $25 and trust
them to use the money/power with no strings.
Anyway, the meeting time went by without agreement and we had to
adjourn into the upstairs bar, and clear the agenda of the rest
of the day. Tempers were flairing and things were pretty bad.
We tried to discuss in the bar and people still were interrupting
and hollering. So we broke again and when we came back, Ezra
Shapiro of Byte was voted to be Chairman and to keep order. Then
we basically ran a VERY controlled meeting with votes disallowed
and let everyone who wanted to get up and make a speech and ask
questions in an orderly fashion. Facts were not disputed and
such, opinions were allowed to be expressed without response to
get the feelings out on the table. After 1-2 hours of this
blood-letting, people began to change and stand up and confirm
IFNA, thanking them for running Fidonet this well for these
years. Everyone began to have a better understanding of things
and feelings.
The three officers as INTERIM officers, with the power to draw up
bylaws and a list of IFNA goals, until Jan 1, at which time we
will have an election. Until then, an IFNA Echomail conference
will be set up (initially in SYSOP) to discuss all the issues, so
as to allow more time for discussion and to bring in those people
who couldn't make the conference. Everyone felt better and we
Fidonews Page 13 25 Aug 1986
went to the Flying W Ranch!
The $25 we paid was considered a contribution, not a membership
fee. Anyone could ask for it back, but no one did that I saw.
(Whew) It was all very exciting and yet very tiring too. I would
like to discuss this in the next SYSOP PICNIC (which I just
missed). John Summers was there as was a friend of the
Wintermute Creator from net 124. (Durn! Sorry, I can't think of
his name). Three sysops were from College Station, and Jeff
(Wintermute Creator) from Austin was there. Overall, Texas was
well represented.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 14 25 Aug 1986
From 130/1, The AmERICan BBS, Sysop Eric Ewanco
I have written a new utility that I hope many Fido sysops
will find of use. I am engaged in EchoMail, and I noticed many
messages on there about message security in FidoNet. I had also
thought about and read what others had to say about the lack of
privacy in EchoMail. Private messages in EchoMail are useless;
not only can all Sysops read them, but even if they couldn't,
they can ASCII dump the file. So I wrote a utility to encrypt
Fido form messages so that only the person with the right
decryption key can read them.
The messages are encrypted in this fashion. All printable
characters excluding the space are encrypted into other printable
characters excluding the space; this is the range '!' (0x21) to
'~' (0x7e). Thus, no message utility should barf due to strange
non-printable codes. Hard and soft carriage returns are not
encrypted. Originally, I encrypted spaces too, but found problems
with SEAdog first with word wrapping and changed it. The key can
be as long as will fit on the command line and must contain only
the characters mentioned above, lest the chars be encrypted into
chars out of that range. You may use underscores for spaces. Case
is sensitive. The parts of the message encrypted are the body and
subject.
MSGCRYPT is naturally compatible with EchoMail. To do this,
the encrypted text is bracketed with a start and end header.
When decrypted, any lines before the start marker and after the
end marker are not decrypted. This goes ONLY for the body; no
such markers exist in the subject. The subject is only touched as
far as I know in SEAdog when you reply, and that's before
encryption.
The encryption technique used in MSGCRYPT is not complicated,
nor as simple as an XOR. The key is scanned and rescanned as many
times as possible to relate one character of the key with one
character of the message. These are converted to be based to 0,
then added and modulated to be within range. A checksum of the 1
compliments of the characters in the key to up that point is
made, modulated, add to the current sum, which is then modulated
and based to 33 again. This is the encrypted character. It seems
to be foolproof.
MSGCRYPT is now undergoing beta testing; but by the time you
read this, it will probably be released. It is available for
SEAdog pickup as MSGCRYPT.ARC on 130/3; if you don't have SEAdog,
drop me a note and I'll file attach and hold a message for you to
poll.
MSGCRYPT will be distributed under the same pretense as
XLATLIST, ARC, LISTGEN, FIDO, etc. etc. etc. Free to hobbiests
(we're all freeloaders, I know) but a small charge will be
required of non-public users, although I will trust them to pay
it and not push anyone. If you aren't required to pay for Fido,
you won't be required to pay for MSGCRYPT. I hope many of you
will have a use for this utility from 130/3.
Fidonews Page 15 25 Aug 1986
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Fidonews Page 16 25 Aug 1986
From node 130/3, The AmERICan BBS, Sysop Eric Ewanco
I am 16 years old, and I run a very respectable board. I
recently had a Commodore 64 user on (I know, I usually feel the
same way), a 14 year old woman, and I got to know her well. She
told me that she had written some poems and I asked to read them.
I thought that they were so good that I'd share them with a few
thousand others, and FidoNews provided the perfect way. So here
they are; two poems by Lorri Leigh Culp of Burleson, Texas.
DREAMS
Once in a lifetime
You have a dream
The kind of man you've always
wanted,
The one you've never seen.
You think of him
You dream of him
All you can do is stare
He's the guy you've always wanted
But now ... he isn't there.
Dreams can carry you
Dreams can kill
Dreams can hurt
'Til you get your fill
You're in that fantasy
No one can break
Until that vital moment
You some how wake
They tear you apart
inside out
They say it was just a dream
They tell you to forget
But nothing can change what you
think you have seen
-- Written 6-20-85.
by
Lorri
Leigh
Culp
Illusions
Picture yourself in a dream of
mirrors
Wondering where to turn.
Picture yourself in a room of
roses
Fidonews Page 17 25 Aug 1986
And wondering who will get burned.
Seeing youself alone in the
darkness
Wondering what you'll see;
Seeing youself in a room of
sunlight
Wondering what you'll be.
Illusions are wonderful
Illusions are great
Illusions can make you wonder
Is this my fate??
Illusions are fantasies
Illusions are real
Illusions are touching
What you can not feel.
Picture yourself in a room with
someone
Fantasies on your mind;
Picture yourself in a room alone
And wondering what you'll find.
Someone is there watching and
waiting
Waiting for you to arrive;
But as you look back, deep in
in your mind
There are only signs of goodbye.
-- Written 7-11-85
Poems (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 by Lorri L. Culp. All rights
reserved.
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Fidonews Page 18 25 Aug 1986
Robert A. Rudolph
Fido 109/628
Seagate - do you REALLY want their product?
By now almost everyone who knows me knows I love Seagate disc
drives - they are small, relatively inexpensive, low in power
demand and easy on your mind because they are as reliable as a
pet rock.
Did you ever wonder what happens if you need a part?
My experience is that if you need a part there are lots of people
who will sell you a whole drive, but NOBODY will sell you a small
part.
I recently bought a second ST-225 for my PC clone. I bought it
from someone I knew who had upgraded and had a nearly new ST-225
that he no longer needed. I was glad to get it, and the day I
brought it home, I took the case off the PC and installed it. I
made an error or two, which the vendor of my clone cheerfully
helped me correct. The drive came up and ran. I was happy. Then
one day I cut power to the PC because of an electrical storm and
the drive did not come up. In the process of isolating the fault
(which turned out not to be the drive), on the advice of the
Seagate folks I removed some terminating resistor packs from the
PC board on the drives. Did not help any, so I put everything
back together and took the PC to the clone vendor, who helped me
isolate a problem to the controller, and replaced the resistor
pack that I had damaged with one from an in-stock drive, asking
me to get him another.
Well, I HAD HAD another, but it was on my desk and the cat got up
there and it disappeared. I thought "Well, it is a small part
that can't cost more than a buck or two, we'll call Seagate and
see who sells them".
So I called Seagate and talked to a number of pleasant people,
and was reassured that Hamilton-Avnet would sell me parts, so I
called a Hamilton-Avnet near me and described the part to the
nice person on the phone, who told me that he would sell me all
the disk drives at $350 each I wanted but would sell no parts.
Further discussion ensued, and soon I was told that since I was a
person and not a business he couldn't even sell me a drive, and
he had no idea where I could get parts.
I called Seagate back and was told that there must have been an
error in understanding, and that Hamilton-Avnet was the official
distributor. So I called Hamilton-Avnet in Pittsburgh with the
same tale. They were a bit nicer - they tried to find the part
and could not, but said they could probably deal with me if I
could get the Seagate part number.
So I called Seagate back (sound familiar?) and explained what had
transpired to another nice young lady, who recommended that I
Fidonews Page 19 25 Aug 1986
call the repair facility that Seagate has in Florida. I did so
and was advised that the small parts would not be available from
anyone but Seagate since "Seagate has a monopoly on their small
parts", but I could buy them from the repair facility if I did
not mind the $50 minimum order policy, or they could sell me all
the disk drives I wanted at $350 per.
I was not then and am not now interested in paying 100 times the
value of a part, but may have to do that as I am honor bound to
replace the part that was loaned to me. Seagate's reputation for
reliability is unparalleled and within the limits of my knowledge
and experience the reputation is well founded. It does not do my
impression of the firm any good to learn that no matter what
breaks if I can find the part at all it will cost me fifty bucks
for another one. I understand that there are costs involved with
everything, but I can remember a time when a vendor would simply
throw a few such small parts in an envelope and send them out and
mark it up to good will. A firm in West Germany has done that
several times when I needed small parts for a model railroad.
I am willing to pay a reasonable amount, and even put up with a
certain amount of BS for being foolish enough to have encroached
on the sacred body of a disk drive, although after almost 20
years in hardware and software support for such firms as Univac,
Memorex and Control Data I am more qualified than many so-called
technicians I know.
I STILL think that Seagate has the best disc drive going. My
opinion of that will probably not change.
However, I'll never buy another one. Non-availability of parts is
unconscionable. Ridiculous costs and open admission of a
monopolistic policy as regards parts source should not be
tolerated. Seagate is entitled to a profit. I am entitled to
serviceability. Counting all parts I could see, there are over
120 discrete components. At $50 a crack, that is $6000 for a $350
disc drive. And yet I do not need another drive; I have 2 and
that is all I need.
Perhaps this silliness was caused by some lower level personnel
at Seagate flexing their muscle, I do not know. I hope that a
monopolistic practice and a denial of parts to users does not
represent the official policy of Seagate.
Until I know for certain, I'll buy no more Seagate drives.
I encourage all of you out in Fido-Land to consider doing the
same. If anyone asks why, show them this article. If any of you
know anyone within the Seagate organization, show them this and
see what the reaction is - and please let me know via FidoMail at
109/628.
And if anyone has a spare terminating resistor pack for a price
more reasonable that $50, I'll take it - my friend needs it.
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Fidonews Page 20 25 Aug 1986
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New Echomail Conference for real and would-be C programmers. The
conference is now up and running. Contact 103/511 or 124/108 to
join in. The name of the conference in Echomailish is "C_ECHO".
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Baker
Metro-Fire Fido, 135/14(0)
Metro-Fire Fido will be having a Labor Day Eve Picnic on Sunday,
31 Aug 86, from 1400-2000 at S.W. 212 Avenue & 168 Street, on the
edge of the Everglades.
All Fido Sysops and families are invited to attend. If you will
be in Miami, Florida over the Labor Day weekend and wish to
attend, send a FidoNet message to 135/14 and I will send you an
ARC containing a map and details.
The picnic will feature a Floppy Disk Throwing Contest and the
First Net 135 Sysops Meeting.
Come on down!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
David Dodell
Fido 114/15 - 1/98
MAILCOST - the outgoing host accounting program has been updated
to now support both Fido and SEADog logs. This program with its
companion program, MAILRPT, allows any net to setup an outgoing
host. There is now the ability to keep track for cost purposes
of all packet going through a particular node.
If you are running SEADog, MCOST14.ARC can be file-requested any
time from Fido 114/15.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* National Science-Fiction and Fantasy Echomail Conference *
Fidonews Page 21 25 Aug 1986
Contact Mike J at 150/900 for a hook-up.
If you're not on the national list, be sure to include your phone
number.
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