Volume 5, Number 7 15 February 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Automatic Routing of Gateways ............................ 1 Quick BBS - Binkley - And More ........................... 6 The Great Earthquake Hoax ................................ 17 2. WANTED ................................................... 20 Anybody for Chess? ....................................... 20 3. NOTICES .................................................. 21 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 21 Latest Software Versions ................................. 21 FidoNews 5-07 Page 1 15 Feb 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Aaron Priven Fidonet (1:125/1154) Automatic Routing of Gateways This was originally a message to Doug Thompson that I just kept writing and writing and writing.... eventually i realized it might be better as an article than as a message. So here it is. (In this article, "nets" are Fidonet Networks, that is, Fidonet routing units like 125 and 109. "Networks" are separate entities like Usenet and Bitnet. Also, all examples are from Zone 1, and many the San Francisco Bay Area in particular; this is only because I'm familiar with it. Please, no national centrism is implied! -- I just don't know very much about the setup of Europe or Oceania in Fidonet.) After thinking it over, these are my ideas to implement gateways from Fidonet to other networks, as far as Fidonet is concerned. Basically, what I want to do is this: just as the Echo Backbone has special node numbers, and so has the Software Backbone, gateways to other nets would also have special node numbers. These numbers would be derived from an assigned "network" number plus another number indicating the geographical unit that a to/from node was in. The question is: why put special numbers in the nodelist? They're *other* networks, aren't they? Can't they just do it for themselves? The answer to that is complex. Communication *is* any network; without communication, there literally is no network. Increasing communication, by adding people to the list with whom you can communicate, will only widen and improve the basis of what the conversations end up being. It should be a primary goal of any network to improve communications. As such, while gateways with other networks may not seem likely to better any one particular network, by "giving away" the information that that network has, in reality both networks, all gatewayed networks, improve by the gatewaying. The reason for the numbers being derived, rather than being selected at random, is twofold. First of all, it's aesthetic; I like numbers that work out that way. Second of all, like net routing to the "xxx/0" node, it allows for automatic routing to that gateway. You simply send to "Usenet", and the computer knows where that is. There are many ways to assign automatic numbers. One may do it by net and region, either requiring that the net or region FidoNews 5-07 Page 2 15 Feb 1988 set aside a particular number for gateways (anything/999 will always be the local Usenet gateway, for example) or by having the NC or RC act as an outbound host for gatewayed mail (just so far as the gateway). The problem with this is getting every NC in Fidonet to do any one thing; I imagine it's hard enough just getting Donald Dodell, Henk Wevers, and Bill Bolton to agree. I believe it must be done netwide, and thus via the nodelist. For example, it would be perfectly possible to have one gateway per region with this formula: / So if Usenet were assigned a gateway number of 50, the Usenet gateway for Zone 1 Region 10 would be 1/5010. The problem here is that Region 10, and most other regions, are really too big to only have one Usenet gateway. Should someone in Quebec call a Usenet gateway in Indiana when might be available right there in Quebec? I really don't think so. Therefore, the units have to be smaller. To my mind, the obvious conclusion is to do it by net. (Independent nodes, of course, would continue to do it by region.) It could be done smaller than that, but most of the time if nets are split, then the split is small enough that it can be plugged in manually. The next step, then, is to use this formula: / So, if Usenet were assigned the gateway number of 7, the Usenet gateway for Zone 1 Region 10 would be 1/7010, and the Usenet gateway for net 161 would be 1/7161. There are quite a few problems here. First of all, it assumes that we'll never have more than nine networks. I don't know if any networks besides Usenet would even consider a gateway (I'll discuss Alternet later); perhaps there will be only one. It is possible that Bitnet or ARPAnet will offer us gateways. Or, perhaps other incompatible microcomputer networks -- the GT- Powercomm network and PunterNet come to mind -- will one day have gateways. It very possible that someday we may reach nine or ten gateways. Furthermore, even if there were only one or two gateways, it is still taking away a tremendous number of Zone 1 special nodes. (I mean by that not that it will take the actual numbers, but it will take up all ten-thousand of the 7000 numbers even if there are only a few gateways.) Right now, Zone 1 special nodes are used in four ways: the software backbone, the echomail backbone, Fidonet compatible software help nodes, and various IFNA and Fidonet offices (the IC, the ZoneGates, and also positions like the FTSC chair and the IFNA membership chairman). Yet they have not lived up to their potential. They do not list help nodes for many products that could use them, including FidoNews 5-07 Page 3 15 Feb 1988 SEAdog (except in Oceania!), Confmail and the rest of Bob Hartman's software, US Robotics and Telebit, and many other products. (This is not a complaint, I'm only pointing-out a possibility.) They do not list the members, or even the chairmen of the various IFNA committees. They do not include even all the members of the IFNA Board of Directors! (Is it any wonder that we have to ask who they are?) When the Zone 1 special nodes are used to the extent that they could and should be, there will be much less room for manipulation. It seems, therefore, that we've run out of options. We just can't use Zone 1 (or Zone 2 or Zone 3) special nodes because there simply aren't enough. I think the only reasonable solution left is to grant special units to gateways to other networks. Thus, which units should we use? I've already shown that single-digit numbers, and thus zones, are not feasible. I think the ideal solution would be to use special net numbers for gateways, for several reasons. First of all, these special nets would be directly under the zone and not in a separate region, thus listing the gateway nodes right under the 1/x special nodes. Second, there are a lot of network numbers available; only 100 are currently used in Zone 1, and since there is already a precedent for not having nets assigned exactly in numerical sequence (unlike, say, 1/x nodes, where all 1/2xx nodes are Echomail Backbone hubs, and all 1/3xx nodes are Software Backbone hubs) there is little reason why all of them couldn't be used. The problem with using nets is, however, clear: all messages to nets are routed via the network host. That is what nets are for, of course, but for situations like this it's simply not the right thing to do. We'll have to use regions, which do not route. There are several drawbacks to using regions, but they simply cannot be helped. The first one is that regions have been assigned starting from 10, and thus will not be listed right after the 1/x nodes; it sounds unimportant but it does ruin the continuity of the nodelist. Second of all, direct representation of one region per gateway would place a large overhead on the region numbers, and ignores the good use that can be made of the fourth digit in each node number. I would suggest that other networks be given gateway numbers of two digits, and the following formulae be used: for the region number, 9 + and for the node number, + . If Usenet were given a gateway number of 11, then the Usenet gateway for Region 10 independents would be 91/1010. If Bitnet were given 0, then the Bitnet gateway for Net 125 would be 90/125. (It is perfectly possible with this scheme to have a FidoNews 5-07 Page 4 15 Feb 1988 gateway number of 0 or of 10; you simply leave out the first digit in the node number). This is really very simple. I would suggest that gateway numbers be assigned first not with 0 or 1, but with 89, and go backwards. (This would make Region 10's gateway 98/9010, and so forth.) This would ensure that Region 99 is still available in the event another special region is needed, and that Regions 90 through probably 96 would be available for regular or special use. It is true that these numbers would take away some of the possibilities of new regions. Nevertheless, at this writing there are only 16 regions in Zone 2, and less in each of the other zones. While regions will no doubt continue to be added in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and it is likely that at some future time some regions elsewhere will be added or split, it is also likely that at such a time as that many regions are needed, a new zone will be needed as well -- doubling the number of possible regions. (These 90-99 numbers could well be used for other things besides gateways. It would be possible to use special region numbers for other special functions we may develop in the future, should we need new region numbers.) The way the messages would be routed is as follows. First, the re-routing program will look in its configuration file for a manual setting of the gateway node. (This is in case one has more than one gateway per net.) Then, the person looks for the node matching the gateway number and the net. For example, Net 125 nodes would look for 98/9125 if the gateway number were 89. If there was no node 98/9125, then it would look for 98/9010, since Net 125 is in Region 10. If there were no 98/9010, it would look for 98/9000. Numbers like 98/0001 and 98/0005 are administrative numbers, indicating the persons in charge of running the gateways (this might not be used, but more likely would be those in charge of keeping the standards for gateway software). * * * I haven't discussed Alternet in the my article, although the thoughts leading up to this article did include them. I don't think it's much of a secret that I dislike Alternet because it hurts communication; it necessitates things like special gateways and funny 9x/xxxx numbers; barriers to communication, which is exactly what in an ideal situation we do NOT need in a communications network! (I like that word, communication.) Nevertheless, in an apolitical spirit, I have to admit that Alternet (despite its origin) is indeed a separate network than Fidonet and (so long as there are enough nodes in Alternet to justify it) should be treated in the Fido nodelist the same way as any other network. That includes, however, the inconvenience of being another network. If they want to be included in the Fido nodelist, then FidoNews 5-07 Page 5 15 Feb 1988 they must be part of Fidonet. Fido's Zone 4 will be used for Latin America, Asia, or Africa, not for any special-interest group; what's best for the organization of Fidonet is clear organizational lines, and that would be completely destroyed by the actual granting of a zone to Alternet and the inclusion of Alternet in the Fido nodelist. The difference between actual inclusion and the granting of gateways is clear: special treatment. Alternet should be given no special treatment whatsoever. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-07 Page 6 15 Feb 1988 From: Gene Coppola Quick BBS Help Node 1/114 Quick BBS by itself is one heck of a program. Adding Binkley as the mail processor or front end if you will, turns a great program into a super program. While this article is designed for the Quick BBS sysop, anyone who desires to use Binkley will profit from reading this. The topics covered are the ones I receive the most questions about on the Quick BBS Help Node. The first question people ask is how do I get Quick BBS to run under Binkley? There are several ways to doit, but the one I use and find most applicable is the EXIT method. This frees up the most RAM and allows me to run almost any RBBS or PcBoard door from Quick BBS. You have to add the following line to your binkley.cfg file to start this process: BBS EXIT This tells Binkley to exit when a human caller is detected with the Errorlevel set to the callers Baud Rate divided by 10. An example would be if a caller comes in at 2400 baud then Binkley will exit with the Errorlevel set to 24, ready to be trapped by the batch file used to run Binkley. Now in the batch file you use to run Binkley you will need to add the following statements to trap the Errorlevel and start QuickBBS when a human calls. If ErrorLevel 24 Goto Baud2400 If ErrorLevel 12 Goto Baud1200 If ErrorLevel 3 Goto Baud300 Those three lines will trap 2400, 1200 and 300 baud callers and send them to the appropriate routine in the batch file. The three routines these lines call are listed below. :Baud2400 ; Procedure Name C: ; Change To Drive C Cd\AAAAAAAA ; Change To Quick BBS Sub QuickBBS -b2400 -E0 ; Call Quick BBS Pass Baud Goto AfterQuick :Baud1200 C: Cd\AAAAAAAA QuickBBS -B1200 -E0 Goto AfterQuick :Baud300 C: Cd\AAAAAAAA FidoNews 5-07 Page 7 15 Feb 1988 QuickBBS -B300 -E0 Goto Start You might notice that in the Baud2400 and Baud1200 routines the last command is Goto AfterQuick and in the Baud300 routine the last command is Goto Start. This is because I do not accept 300 Baud callers on my system, so once QuickBBS has informed the caller of this and logged them off, I do not have to worry about processing any messages or netmail and can go right back to start Binkley up again. Okay so now Binkley can answer the phone, detect a human caller and pass control to Quick BBS. Once the caller has logged off, my batch file goes the routine named AfterQuick which is listed below. :AfterQuick ; Procedure Name C: ; Make Sure I Am On C Drive cd \AAAAAAAA ; Change To Quick BBS Sub Directory echoscan ; Move EchoMail To Message Area mailscan ; Move NetMail To Message Area D: ; Change Back To Drive D cd \BINK ; Change To Binkley Sub Directory Goto Bundle ; Goto Message Processing Routine Okay, so what is Bundle? How does Binkley or Quick BBS now process the mail? Well, it took me quite a while to completely understand this with help from experts such as Bob Hartman, Rick Siegel, Doug Boone, Baba Buhler, Mike Janke, and many more, to whom I say THANK YOU! OMMM is the program that processes the messages and sets things rolling for delivery. What I could not grasp was the UNIQUE things that OMMM allows you to do. Just like most other Sysops, I was used to the three tiered mail schedule we use in Net 107. Basically, it works like this. From one hour before National Mail to one-half hour before National Mail, we send all outgoing mail (non-echo) to our local Hubs. From one half hour before NMH to NMH our Hubs send the mail to our Outbound gateway. During NMH each node is responsible to send EchoMail and messages with Attaches directly to the destination. From NMH to one half hour after NMH we send and receive from nodes in Net 107, while the Igate processes the mail and sends it to the Hubs. From one half hour after NMH to one hour after NMH the nodes are usually quite, waiting to receive mail from their Hubs. Even though I ran SEAdog as a front end, I never thought about FidoNews 5-07 Page 8 15 Feb 1988 processing mail any way other than above. Now with Binkley as my front end, mail processing has changed. Since my Hub accepts CM and mail outside of National Mail Hour, Binkley and OMMM make it very easy for me to send outbound mail to my Hub during the day. The Hub is a LOCAL call, so it does not cost anything to make the call during the day. So in my Day Time Schedule in OMMM.CTL (Schedule D) I send all non-echo outbound mail to my Hub. Since there are several nodes in the local area, I send any mail to them directly thus lightening the load on my Hub somewhat. I also HOLD echomail for several Sysops who desire to Poll me, so I have HOLD statements in this schedule as well. Here is what my OMMM.CTL looks like. SCHED D UNHOLD ALL ; Remove Hold From All Packets ONEHOLD 129/34 ; -+ ONEHOLD 135/68 ; | ONEHOLD 104/24 ; +--> Hold For People Who Poll Me ONEHOLD 170/211 ; | ONEHOLD 135/4 ; -+ ONECM 107/211 ; -+ ONECM 107/233 ; \ - ARC And Send Direct ONECM 107/238 ; / - Bypassing Hub ONECM 107/269 ; -+ ROUTE 107/200 107/ALL ; Route All Remaining 107 Mail ; To My Hub. (Author's Note: It might not be the best but it works!) Here is what the schedule event looks like in the Binkley configuration file. Event All 06:00 23:59 L C B E1=10 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Event All 00:00 02:59 L C B E1=10 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Okay, now my day time mail is being handled. Note that there are 2 events above. This is because Binkley cannot handle an event that crosses the midnight hour. So one event is from 6:00 am to 11:59 pm and the next is from midnight until 2:59 am. The three flags I have set are L which enables local mail, C for Crash Mail and B which allows BBS access. E1 is set to Errorlevel 10, which sets the SCHED variable to SCHED D. When the event starts it goes to SCHED D in OMMM.CTL and processes the mail as above. FidoNews 5-07 Page 9 15 Feb 1988 From 3:00 am to 3:59 am I poll various nodes to get my echomail. From 04:00 to 05:00 (NMH) I use SCHED M which is show below. SCHED M UNHOLD ALL ; Removes Holds From All Packets ONEHOLD 135/4 ; ONEHOLD 129/34 ; ONEHOLD 135/68 ; Hold EchoMail For Pickup ONEHOLD 170/211 ; ONEHOLD 104/24 ; Here is the event line for this schedule. Event All 04:00 05:00 N E1=11 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 E1 is set to Errorlevel 11 which sets the schedule to SCHED M which is my NMH schedule. I hope you are beginning to understand this. Basically you set each schedule to handle the mail the way you want it done. So far, I have not touched on the command line for OMMM but will now cover that. All of my events call the procedure named :BUNDLE which basically starts OMMM on its way. Here is what BUNDLE looks like in my batch file. :Bundle Ommm -s%sched% -hd:\zzzznet\outbound -cd:\Bink\ommm.ctl - Id:\Bink\binkley.PRM -Md:\zzzznet -n -d -z Goto Start This breaks down as follows: -s%sched% is the SCHED variable set by the various events as the day goes by. -hd:\zzzznet\outbound is the holding area for messages once they have been processed. This is WHERE they seem todisappear to after OMMM has processed them. This is also where Binkley EXPECTS to find them. -c:\Bink\ommm.ctl is the COMPLETE path and file name of the control file for OMMM. -Id:\Bink\binkley.PRM is the COMPLETE path and file name for the Binkley PRM file. -Md:\zzzznet is the directory where Quick BBS and any other utility stores messages WAITING to be processed. FidoNews 5-07 Page 10 15 Feb 1988 Once OMMM has processed the mail, the batch file goes back to the start and runs Binkley again. E3 in the Binkley.cfg file is a special flag. This is what you want to occur when CRASH Mail is received. I have listed my procedure below. :Unpackmail ; Procedure Name C: ; Change To Drive C Cd\AAAAAAAA ; Change To Quick BBS Sub Directory echogen -U -T ; Unarc and Toss All Echomail ARCMAIL FROM ALL ; Just In Case Echogen Misses Something ECHOTOSS ; Same As Line Above MailToss 2 ; Toss NetMail Into Quick BBS Board 2 D: ; Change Back To Drive D Cd \Bink ; Change To Binkley Sub Directory Goto Bundle ; Ah, Here Is Bundle Again Bundle is called at the end to process the mail again. Echogen produces the echomail for the nodes I feed. If any EchoMail came in the CRASH mail, Echogen sends it to the nodes I feed and then tosses it into the appropriate message boards in the Quick BBS message file. So, as you can see, running OMMM to process the mail is done after any mail comes in, and again at the start of every new event. By setting the SCHED variable to the proper schedule in OMMM.CTL you determine how the mail is to be handled. You will notice the following lines at the top of my batch file to run Binkley. Set BINKLEY=D:\BINK\ If %Sched%!==! goto day_route The first line sets the Dos variable BINKLEY equal to the PATH where the Binkley files are stored. This is QUITE important, so I set it here as well as in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file upon system start up. The second line covers unexpected mistakes on my part. If, in my all night editing sessions I screw up and leave an event unscheduled, it reverts to the day time mail schedule which ONLY sends local mail. I learned this lesson the hard way. I hope that explains a little more about how Binkley works with Quick BBS. I have enclosed my complete batch file and configuration at the end of this article to help you along your way. As the Quick BBS HELP node I keep a complete set of Quick BBS and Binkley files on-line. These are available to new callers for download on the FIRST call. Here is the latest list of Quick BBS and associated files that go along with Quick BBS. You can request FILES from 1/114 to get the latest listing of FidoNews 5-07 Page 11 15 Feb 1988 files available. This is updated twice a day and is always current. EGEN_105.ARC Version 1.05 Fixes BUGS In 1.04 QUICKUPD.ARC Update Quick BBS 1.01 To 1.02 QUICKBBS.ARC QuickBBS Standard Package (Main Program) QUICKDOC.ARC QuickBBS Sysop Documentation QUICKNET.ARC QuickBBS Net Mail Option QUICKECO.ARC QuickBBS Echo Mail Option QUICKPAK.ARC All Of The Above Files BATCH.ARC My Batch And Control Files For This System SAMPMENU.ARC Menus Used On This System SAMPQEST.ARC Sample New User Questionnaire STRUCT.ARC File Structures For Quick BBS X00106.ARC Fossil Driver For QuickBBS BULLMAKE.ARC News/Bulletin Generator (FREEWARE) CVTMSG.ARC Imports Messages From Opus To Quick BBS CVTUSER.ARC Converts Opus User File To Quick BBS DSZ0110.ARC External Zmodem Protocol (Latest Version) FILESCAN.ARC Creates List Of Available Files V5.1 USERLOG.ARC Userlog/Message Base/Answerfile Utility <-New UPURGE.ARC Purge By Date, Security Level WXMODEM.ARC External Wxmodem Driver BINKBATS.ARC My Cfg And Bats To Run Binkley BEXE_130.ARC Binkley (A Front End For Quick BBS) BINKOMMM.ARC Using OMMM With Binkley BTCTL.ARC Replaces Faulty BTCTL In BEXE_103 Archive CONFMAIL.ARC B. Hartman's Mail Package 3.3 FILESCAN.ARC V5.1 Now Supports Binkley <--NEW OMMM_108.ARC Message Handler For Binkley OMMMHELP.ARC More Help Using OMMM With Binkley ONODE146.ARC Nodelist Utility For Binkley REMAPPER.ARC Service Points With Binkley - External Protocol Drivers OATE_100.ARC Ascii Protocol Transfer Driver OKER_104.ARC Kermit Protocol Driver WMODEMX.ARC Wxmodem Protocol Driver YMG110.ARC YmodemG Protocol Driver All of the above files are requestable. Opus and SEAdog requests are handled quite well by Binkley, so you should not have any major problems if you decide to request them from 1/114 or 107/246. For those of you that enjoy running programs outside of Quick BBS we have an assortment of RBBS doors and PcBoard programs that work quite well. - QUICK BBS EXTERNAL DOOR SOFTWARE BBSLIST.ARC User Maintained BBS Listing Program FidoNews 5-07 Page 12 15 Feb 1988 - Quick BBS External Door Software RBBSDOOR.ARC All below REQUIRE This To Run CIA.ARC Join The CIA Adventure Game CHESSDOR.ARC Multi-Player Chess Game TIME.ARC Adventure In Time - PCBOARD External Door Software QDOOR12.ARC REQUIRED For All Below 5-CARD20.ARC 5 Card Draw Poker CHECKERS.ARC On-line Checkers Game CRAPS141.ARC Craps Game FIFI12.ARC Madam Fifi's House Of Pleasure GHOST.ARC Ghost Hunter Adventure KRAPZ15.ARC A Better Craps Game PCBVIET.ARC VietNam Adventure SCRACK12.ARC Safe Cracker TGTRIV26.ARC Top Gun Trivia(Latest Release) - Utility Files DOORBATS.ARC Sample Door Batch Files And Menus QBBSSPEC.ARC 3 New Game Adventure Doors More and more door software is being developed and we are expecting a Quick BBS specific version of Trade Wars in the near future. I have seen it, and it runs very nicely. I would love to Beta test (Hint) on my system. Quick BBS version 2.0 is going into Beta test very soon, and we are all looking forward to seeing it. For those of you who have never seen Quick BBS in action, here is a list of some of the Beta test sites. 104/24 QuickBBS Support Board Adam Hudson 104/32 ETA Denver Rick Christensen 104/51 P2 B2 S Claude Warren 104/54 CoCo County Airport Ron Biehler 105/55 Casper's Place Dale Weber 107/246 QuickBBS East Gene Coppola 202/401 QuickBBS West Rick Fry 381/1 The Data Emporium Vernon Six 383/761 Telelink Information Michael Otto 103/501 Mount Silverthorne David Garrett 132/114 Stateline Bob Westcott 116/2 Music PC Users Group John Reed Each system may appear different to you, as the menus and basically the entire presentation is designed by the Sysop, similar to TBBS. Ansi graphics are used in many systems and the color displays can be very nice. FidoNews 5-07 Page 13 15 Feb 1988 Unlike other systems Quick BBS does not write a message file for each individual message. Messages are stored in one large file with the header and other message info in another file. This alone has been the cause for many Opus and Fido Sysops to switch over to Quick BBS. Lots of disk space and directory entries are saved in this manner and the search through the message base is extremely fast! Currently Echogen 1.05 handles mail just like Confmail does. It will Toss and Scan mail and is extremely fast. Quick BBS handles most popular file transfer protocols including Zmodem and Ymodem. You can exit Quick BBS while on-line in one of several methods. One method is a spawn to Dos to run another program. Another method is an actual exit from Quick BBS and then a return with the special -R command. These two features allow you to run large programs with no problems. A FOSSIL driver is required to run Quick BBS. At this time we recommend either X00V_106 or X00V_108 depending upon which of those two perform best on your system. Both will work with Binkley with no problems. Well that's about it for now. Here are the files I promised you earlier. ;RunBBS Batch File To Run Binkley And Quick BBS echo off Set BINKLEY=D:\BINK\ If %Sched%!==! goto day_route :Start d: cd \BINK getdate search /d echo off BT Share If ErrorLevel 100 Goto LocalBBS If Errorlevel 90 Goto nat_mail If ErrorLevel 70 Goto Qmodem If ErrorLevel 50 Goto unpackmail If ErrorLevel 30 Goto unpackmail if Errorlevel 25 goto receive_only If ErrorLevel 24 Goto Baud2400 If Errorlevel 20 Goto clean If Errorlevel 15 goto loc2_mail If Errorlevel 14 goto loc_mail If Errorlevel 13 goto o_gate If ErrorLevel 12 Goto Baud1200 If Errorlevel 11 goto nat_mail If ErrorLevel 10 Goto day_route FidoNews 5-07 Page 14 15 Feb 1988 If ErrorLevel 3 Goto Baud300 If ErrorLevel 0 Goto End Goto Start :day_route set Sched=D goto bundle :loc_mail set Sched=H goto bundle :o_gate set SCHED=P goto bundle :nat_mail set Sched=M goto bundle :loc2_mail set Sched=V goto bundle :receive_only Set Sched=W goto bundle :LocalBBS c: Cd\AAAAAAAA Quickbbs -L -E0 Goto AfterQuick :Baud2400 C: Cd\AAAAAAAA QuickBBS -b2400 -E0 Goto AfterQuick :Baud1200 C: Cd\AAAAAAAA QuickBBS -B1200 -E0 Goto AfterQuick :Baud300 C: Cd\AAAAAAAA QuickBBS -B300 -E0 Goto Start :AfterQuick C: cd \AAAAAAAA FidoNews 5-07 Page 15 15 Feb 1988 echoscan mailscan d: cd \BINK Goto Bundle :Bundle Ommm -s%sched% -hd:\zzzznet\outbound -cd:\Bink\ommm.ctl - Id:\Bink\binkley.PRM -Md:\zzzznet -n -d -z Goto Start :Unpackmail C: Cd\AAAAAAAA echogen -U -T ARCMAIL FROM ALL -k ECHOTOSS MailToss 2 d: Cd \Bink Goto Bundle :Clean C: Cd \aaaaaaaa echokdup MsgPack -R -B D: cd \BINK goto start :Qmodem d: cd \qmodem c: cd \bink Goto Start :end search /a echo on echo Bye Now Here is my Binkley Configuration file. ; Binkley.CFG ;Autobaud ;NoSLO ;Nofullscreen ;Overwrite ;SlowModem ;SmallWindow ;Suffix About C:\AAAAAAAA\files.txt FidoNews 5-07 Page 16 15 Feb 1988 Avail C:\AAAAAAAA\files.txt BBS Exit Banner Quick BBS East -=- Wait 5 Seconds or... Baud 2400 Boss 107/246 Bossphone 1-516-328-7064 Busy |ATZ| Carrier 80 Event All 00:00 02:59 L B E1=10 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Event All 03:00 03:59 N E1=13 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Event All 04:00 05:00 N E1=11 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Event All 05:00 05:30 N E1=15 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Event All 05:30 06:00 N R E1=25 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Event All 06:00 23:59 L B E1=10 E2=30 E3=50 A=180 Hold D:\ZZZZNET\Outbound\ Init |AT&FM0H0&C1&D2S0=1| LogLevel 5 MaxReq 10 Netfile D:\ZZZZNET\ Netmail D:\ZZZZNET\ Nodelist D:\NODELIST\ Okfile C:\AAAAAAAA\okfile.txt Point 107/246 Port 1 Prefix |ATDT, Protocol D:\Bink\Kermit.exe Protocol D:\bink\Ascii.exe Protocol D:\bink\Wxmodem.com Protocol D:\bink\Ymodemg.com Reader Nc Statuslog d:\bink\Binkly.Log Sysop Gene Coppola System Quick BBS East Timeout 5 Unattended Zone 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-07 Page 17 15 Feb 1988 The Great Earthquake Hoax Fredric Rice (103/503) Original reference material may be found at Griffith Observatory, located at 2800 East Observatorty Road, Los Angeles, California. 90027. Request back issue of Griffith Observer, January, 1975, page 14, for Edward K. L. Upton, "The Great Earthquake Hoax". Direct requests to Dr. Edwin C. Krupp and staff. You may aquire subscriptions to the Griffith Observer through the same address. It provides a great quantity of understandable information concerning astronomy, (And is well worth the price!) -------------------- The word "Scientist", as defined in the common dictionary, describes a person who is "expert in science". It further goes on to say that "Science" is defined as "systematized knowledge or a branch of it". "Expert" has been described as "X", (the unknown factor), and "Spert", (a drip under pressure). A scientist would then be a person who specializes in drips under pressure. At least this seems to be the case with some of the so-called "Scientist" that "pop up" every now and then. Related here, in the form of a question, is the actuall account of an incident that many of you will remember. Do you remember way back in 1982 when the San Andreas Fault gave way and California slipped into the contenential shelf? If any of you were quick enough to buy Nevada beach front property after reading "The Jupiter Effect", written by John Gribbon and Stephen Plagemann, you would no doubt remember that fatefull day as the day your newly aquired property became beach front indeed. Let's explore the outer edges of known science and see if we can understand how these two great scientist were able to extrapolate the end of California from mounds of research papers and data. -------------------- In September of 1975, two scientist, one who associated within the NASA circle, the other who works for a scientific journal, wrote a book that would inform the general California public about the up-comming destruction of the state. The train of events for the discovery of this information was a staggering amount of hypotheses. For each of these hypotheses, a detailed examination with supportive data and graphs was offered. 1) Within the text of this book, they say that sunspots are created by tidal forces generated by the planets. They go further to state that sunspot activity increases when planets are grouped along one side of the sun. Can they be serious? Do they do their homework? Well, the FidoNews 5-07 Page 18 15 Feb 1988 answer would have to be no. Tidal forces are additive when on opposite sides of the sun also. This would seem to be an assumption on the part of the authors that the pull of gravity would be additive when on the same side and cancel eachothers pull out when on opposite sides of the sun. 2) The solar wind produces changes in the air flow pattern in the Earths atmosphere. Further, the changes that take place tend to slow down the rotation of the Earth, increasing the length of the day by about one 0.001 second. Well, in fact, this is true. We must agree that the effect of solar particles and the accumulation of meteroic dust does contribute to the lengthening of the day. The rotation of the Earth is not constant and in fact will speed up and slow down for a variety of reasons. 3) Fault lines are put under additional strain when the Earth is slowed down. The deceleration of the massive Earth is great enough to cause major damage to the Earths crust. It's a good thing the Earth doesn't have tecktonic plates or we would all be in trouble! When in fact, we do have tecktonic plates that cause the faults the authors talk about. These plates move in all directions, (California will be at the North Pole some day). The theory that the Earth decelerates quickly enough to cause increased strain to the Earths crust has not be demonstrated yet. At least to subscribed knowledge, such evidence does not yet exist. 4) When Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus join the others planets in 1982 there will be a greater tidal pull on the sun triggering massive solar eruptions. These eruptions will change the air flow pattern of Earth, causing fault lines to break, and all of California will be history. Actually, the authors do not go on to say that California will be history. What they actually talk about is the massive damage and loss of life that will occure when the big one finally hits. The authors don't know about Alaska, Chile, or Japan where other major faults can be found. Why would San Andreas be the only fault to be affected by the Jupiter Effect? California is a nice place. I have lived on the Californian beach for over 28 years, and even spent some time in Los Angeles! I was born in southern California at an undisclosed year, but I am forced to admit that the people are a little quick to accept any "scientific" observation or device that makes the six o'clock news. That and the earthquakes that take place from time to time add up to an underlying fear that someday the big one will come. It would have been better for everyone concerned if the FidoNews 5-07 Page 19 15 Feb 1988 authors had published their scientific data in a comic book. This type of sensationalization of a planetary "alignment" was childish and gives the rest of the scientific community a black eye. -------------------- It is up to the scientist of the community to suppress this type of nonesense and psuedo-sciences such as astrology and tea leaf reading. Unfortunatly, respectable scientist don't have the visability that the authors of "Jupiter" do. You might remember the revelations about the origin of humans in the Von Danakain Theory or "Chariots of the Gods!". Many graphs, charts, and photographs prove points which the layman or uninformed are not trained to understand. Carl Segan has stated that just because he is a highly visable scientist, you shouldn't take his word as an authority. This is a good message to take with you on your way to the book store. -------------------- Additional Information: 1) The actual "Alignment" that took place in 1982 was not a true alignment in the proper sence. The planets grouped along 100 degrees of the ecliptic when they are usually further apart. In this sense, it could be said that an alignment was taking place. 2) The solar tide is affected by the planets by about one milimeter. This is about the thickness of a dime. -------------------- Additional Reading: 1) The Jupiter Effect. Don't wast your money if you can't borrow a copy of this book. The library in your area might have it so ask them first. 2) Griffith Observer, January 1975, Volume 39, Number 1. The Great Earthquake Hoax by Edward K. L. Upton. Subscriptions to the Griffith Observer may be aquired through the address offered at the top of this article. A monthly booklett is published by the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and each contains a wealth of valuable information. The subscription price is probibly still around $10.00 or $15.00, and is used to maintain that great institution. To find the actual subscription price, call the observatory and ask for the subscription rates available. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-07 Page 20 15 Feb 1988 ================================================================= WANTED ================================================================= Thomas Kenny Metatron's Opus @ 107/416 Anybody for Chess? I would like to know how I can contact Don Berg the author of the program "chess88". I'm also interested in obtaining chess programs that run on MSDOS machines. Any leads for public domain, shareware or even commerical programs would be appreciated. Another thing I would like to do is start a Chess echomail conference. Please let me know if you are interested in linking in. If I get real adventurous I may even gateway the rec.games.chess newsgroup from UseNet if there is enough interest! Last but not least I'm interested in playing some email chess games. If you are interested, send me netmail and I'll let you know how we can proceed. Regarding any of the above items please address FidoNet mail to Thomas Kenny at 107/416. Thanks! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-07 Page 21 15 Feb 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 19 Feb 1988 Start of the International FidoNet Associations Board of Directors meeting in St. Louis. Meeting runs through the 21st. 16 Jul 1988 A new areacode, 508, will form in eastern Massachusetts and will be effective on this date. The new area code will be formed from the current areacode 617. Greater Boston will remain areacode 617 while the rest of eastern Massachusetts will form the new areacode 508. 25 Aug 1988 Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnatti, OH. Contact Tim Sullivan at 108/62 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see you there! 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 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.80 EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 Fido 12e* MakeNL 1.10 ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03a Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.31* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.85* EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 1.30* QuickBBS 1.02 * Recently changed 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-07 Page 22 15 Feb 1988 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________________ State ________________________________ Zip _____________________ Country _________________________________________________________ Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________ BBS Name ________________________________________________________ BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________ Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________ Board Restrictions ______________________________________________ Your Special Interests __________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in US Funds to: International FidoNet Association c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA 700 Bishop Street, #1014 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-4112 USA Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to insure the future of FidoNet. Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the membership in January 1987. The first elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-07 Page 23 15 Feb 1988 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we can make no written guarantees. Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986 IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ SUBTOTAL _____ IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____ Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member International orders include $10.00 for surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____ SUBTOTAL _____ HI. Residents add 4.0 % Sales tax _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS: International FidoNet Association c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA 700 Bishop Street, #1014 Honolulu, HI. 96813-4112 USA Name________________________________ Zone:Net/Node____:____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------