Volume 6, Number 11 13 March 1989 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritus: Dale Lovell 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. 1:1/1 is a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. Copyright 1989 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. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and are used with permission. We don't necessarily agree with the contents of every article published here. Most of these materials are unsolicited. No article will be rejected which is properly attributed and legally acceptable. We will publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 National Major League Baseball Echo Proposed ............. 1 FrontDoor - Mailer for the 90's .......................... 2 SEA Letter: USNO ......................................... 6 Will ZIP Replace ARC? .................................... 7 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 10 The Old Frog's Almanac - Update .......................... 10 Trapped .................................................. 12 Let's YACK about (How) FidoNet Gains Independence! ....... 14 3. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 15 And more! FidoNews 6-11 Page 1 13 Mar 1989 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= National Major League Baseball Echo Proposed While looking through a list of available national echos recently, I was surprised to note there is not an echo dedicated to Major League Baseball. As an ardent fan of the game, I decided to take it upon myself and start one. In the process, I have enlisted the aid of Glen Jackson, sysop of the local IBM User's Group's BBS, as well as his own BBS here in St. Louis, Mo. I am involved in broadcast media, and am in the press contingent that covers the St. Louis Cardinals locally. This gives me occasional insight into the game from a different perspective from most fans. It is also our hope to be able to draw an occasional response or visit from various others in media and in the game itself on the echo. There are a lot of computer users in the game itself, and in the people on the fringe of the game. The scope of the discussion would be limited to Major League and AAA Minor League Baseball. It is our belief that it should also restrict itself to discussion of the game, and the merits of its participants both present and past, and to avoid "flaming," advertising of any nature, and, in general, promote good conversation in a courteous environment. While there are some great rivalries in the game between various teams, the inheret nastiness they bring out would also be avoided by rules. We are more interested in promoting the discussion of the game itself than continuing friendly, and not-so-friendly discussions between fans of rival team. It is our best hope to have the echo started by the beginning of baseball season in April; if we can get enough boards on-line in time, perhaps we could start during spring training. Baseball has been setting attendance records across the country- last year was the best season ever. I think this makes it an excellent time to begin a national echo for our national sport! --- David Blair @ 100/617 For those of you that would be interested: we will first be putting together a list of those nodes that wish to participate. This will NOT be a closed echo. If enough nodes request links immediatly, we will ask to have this run through the backbone. If not, 100/617 will Host it. Moderator will be David Blair. Conference Rules will be posted. For more information, you may send netmail to: David Blair 100/617 --- Glen Jackson 100/617 (100/0) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 2 13 Mar 1989 F R O N T D O O R 2 . 0 ========================= The Mailer for the 90's! -by- Onanus Maximus (Michael Nelson, 143/20) How 'bout it, Bunky? Would you like a FREE 5 megabytes of hard disc space? Would you like to stop juggling 10 or 12 programs, just to get the ol' mail in and out? Would you like to do everything with function keys, instead of having to constantly exit from your mailer to modify countless batch, routing, event, and config files? Would you like an editor that is virtually a word processor? How 'bout a terminal program that is every bit as good as TELIX 3.11, but integrated into your mailer program? If all this sounds good, you should take a look at "Front Door", Joaquim Homrighausen's superb integrated mailer. The "Last Test Release (1.13g)" of Front Door 2.00 came out last week, and several members of Net 143 have converted to it. Every one I have talked to who has tried it is delighted with FD. Why? The SETUP Program: Front Door is a truly INTEGRATED mailer package. To begin with, one of the first features of FD you encounter when setting it up is the SETUP.EXE program. This is a very nicely done, menu-driven program that lets you set up all parameters required for FD's operation. After you have run Setup.exe the first time and have FD running, you can modify all parameters, on the fly, by merely pressing your F6 key! The Setup program even gives you dropdown menu driven control over your event schedules and security (session passwording, file passwording, etc.). You can easily setup colors for the mailer and for the terminal program. Modem control is also accessible from Setup, as is complete control over file requests. If you are running a ConfMail-type message system, Setup includes up to 200 "Folders" for Echo, Local, and NetMail areas, all configurable from the menu. For those of you with Assistant Sysops (boy, that must be THE LIFE!), Setup includes multiple levels of password protected security for the Sysop and the Assistant sysop. You can allow your Assistant access to only certain functions and areas, if you like. And, Setup allows control of security for FD's powerful Server function. More about the Server later.... The Mailer Program: FidoNews 6-11 Page 3 13 Mar 1989 The Mailer program is the heart and soul of Front Door, and, when you compare it with BinkleyTerm 2.00, it is evident that you are dealing with state of the art mailer design. Every function you need is instantly accessible through multiple layers of Function keys, with context sensitive help available at most points just by pressing the F1 key. If you are tired of oMMM and its mysterious ways, you will love Front Door. FD includes its own integrated packer which packs bundles on the fly, only when they are to be sent during the current event. FD also includes a complete set of easy to use routing commands, and it supports route scheduling which is tied to your events. Recent history stats are automatically maintained, and you have control through Setup as to how much history FD should keep. There are separate Inbound and Outbound history screens with all the data you could possibly need, and these data screens are easily maintained, again through the use of Function Keys. You can sort data, tag it, dump it to a file, print it, etc., all from the Manager sub-menus. There are pre-programmed Function keys as well as 10 user definable ones, accessible as Alt-Fx series keys. Just got a new NodeDiff? No problem... FD includes an integrated NodeList compiler, and the resulting compiled NodeList files are so much smaller than the ones required for Bink that it is ridiculous! A savings of several hundred K of disc space is realized by these files alone! You can easily compile your NodeList with a simple press of a function key, or you can put the necessary code into your RUNFD.BAT batch file to handle it for you when the new NodeDiff arrives. (I should point out, however, that the FREE version of FD will not yet merge the NodeDiff with the existing NodeList... that feature is included in the commercial version, though). Because of the built-in compiler, you will not need ParseList, XlatList, or XlaxNode (but you WILL need XlaxDiff to do the merge). The Editor: The editor built into FD 2.0 is by far the best editor in any mailer package. This sucker is virtually a word processor, with such functions (again, all accessible through multiple layers of function keys) as importing a text file into a message, the ability to send multiple copies of the message out buy typing CC: and then either the name or the net/node number, file attach, file request, forwarding, replying, reply with quoting, ten user definable Origin lines that you select from a menu, accessing a specific message by number, and scanning for unread messages. There is a second level of function keys under the Utilities key which allows you to do such things as printing a single message, tagging several messages either manually or through a selection process, printing tagged messages, dumping messages to a file, FidoNews 6-11 Page 4 13 Mar 1989 purging messages by user or system... it goes on and on! There are eight pages in the manual devoted to the many varied functions of the editor alone! The Terminal Program: Calling Front Door's terminal program a "Dumb Terminal" is like calling Albert Einstein "slow". This terminal program is easily the equal of Telix 3.11, and for a SYSOP, it is much better! It includes the ability to use the entire nodelist as a dialing directory, and to easily import a node's data into the 200 position dialing directory. You can either enter a net/node number or a Sysop's name, and this terminal will find the right number. If you enter a name search string, FD will find all the matches in the NodeList, and pop up a menu for you to select from. For instance, if you type in Todd Looney, it will show you 143/0, 143/27, and even 143/28 (Integrated Systems, Todd's business BBS). You then select the one you want with the moving bar menu, and it will dial out. The terminal has the ability to store over 60 thousand sets of macro keys for logon codes, etc, and will store information about the macro key set you use with that particular BBS. All of the great file transfer protocols are hard coded into the program, and it includes automatic Zmodem downloads, YModem-G (great for those of us who have HST's, PEP's, or MNP modems because YModem-G does not use any error correction and therefore is much faster with error correcting modems), and SeaLink Overdrive, in addition to the old standbys like Xmodem and Ymodem. The Server Program: Front Door's Server program allows you to call in with a pre- written script, sent in the form of a message, and the script will execute in a fashion similar to a DOS batch file. Basically, anything you can do with a batch file, you can do with Server! And, for security, Server sessions are password protected. This really gives you capabilities similar to (but not as powerful as) programs such as Carbon Copy Plus and PC Anywhere III. Point Support: Front Door's support of points is unsurpassed by any other mailer. Full point addressing is used (1:143/20.3, etc.), and is also supported by Joaquim's optional FDTosScan program for tossing and scanning mail. Zone Awareness: Since Joaquim is Swedish, and does lots of EchoMail with nodes in Europe, he and Peter Stewart have taken extra pains to make FD especially Zone-Aware. For those of you who are involved in multiple Nets such as EggNet and AlterNet, FD will make your interzone work painless. In fact, Zone Awareness was such an important part of FD's development that the company that Joaquim FidoNews 6-11 Page 5 13 Mar 1989 and Peter started is called InterZone Software! Summary: Hopefully I have not "gushed" too much about Front Door, but it is the most exciting development in mailers since BinkleyTerm was introduced, and you may have guessed that I am very enthusiastic about it. It has already made my life as a SYSOP easier, and has reduced my phone bills to boot, because FD performs mail transfer handshaking MUCH faster, thereby reducing your connect time. Put those benefits together with the enormous savings in disc space, (I picked up about 4 megabytes of free space by converting, considering I was able to blow away TELIX, Binkley, oMMM, Bonk, XlaxNode, Please, Amax, and go to fewer and smaller NodeList files), and it makes Front Door pretty hard to beat! If you have any doubts about all this, please feel free to send me NetMail at 1:143/20 or 1:143/400. Or, check with any of the nodes who have recently converted to this state of the art mailer. The list currently includes 143/23, 143/20, 143/29, 143/27, 143/120, and 204/42. Several other nodes in 143 have freq'd the program from me and are in process of converting. You can freq FD from me either under the magic name "FD" or as FD113.PAK. It is a big archive though (about 523K), and takes about 40 minutes at 2400 bps or about 8 minutes at 9600/ARQ (*HST*). ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 6 13 Mar 1989 What's Happening at SEA? When it was first introduced, the USNO program by System Enhancement Associates, Inc. was widely hailed as by far the best such program anywhere. So what did we do? We made it better. USNO is a program that calls the U.S. Naval Observatory and sets your system clock. What could be simpler? However, that can get a bit expensive for those of us who don't happen to live in Maryland. It has always been possible to tell USNO to dial a different phone number, but that hasn't helped much as there is a severely limited supply of Naval Observatories in the United States. But with the advent of the SHELL statement in SEAdog 4.50, any SEAdog system can be a "Naval Observatory" for his friends and neighbors. All it takes is a copy of USNO version 1.05, and the following statement in your CONFIG.DOG file: shell 84 usno EST -r30 Change the time zone to whatever yours happens to be, of course. Now anyone with USNO version 1.05 can tell it to use YOUR phone number. Files mentioned this week: USNO.ARC The USNO clock-setter. USNO.ARC may be downloaded from our technical support bulletin board at (201) 473-1991, or may be file-requested from either 520/1015@AlterNet or 1:107/1015@FidoNet. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 7 13 Mar 1989 John Herro 1:363/6 Will ZIP Replace ARC? Bulletin boards store most files in a compressed form for two reasons. First, it reduces the time it takes to send files by modem, saving on telephone charges. Second, it saves disk space. At one time, most files were compressed with the program SQZ (Squeeze). Also, several related files were grouped into one "library" file with LU (Library Utility). System Enhancement Associates (SEA) improved file compression dramatically with a shareware program called ARC (Archive). ARC compresses files and groups them into one file, all in one pro- gram. Also, it compresses files harder (to a smaller size) than SQZ. Although .ARC files are not compatible with SQZ, ARC is a much better program. So almost overnight, ARC files replaced SQZ files on bulletin boards. Phil Katz of PKWARE then produced a shareware program PKARC, which was compatible with ARC, but ran much faster. A later ver- sion of PKARC was able to squeeze some files harder than SEA ARC at the expense of compatibility. However, it had an option to produce SEA ARC compatible files. Even with the greater compres- sion turned on, PKARC ran much faster than SEA ARC. Then SEA sued PKWARE for violating its copyright and for using the name "ARC" and the .ARC file format. Which side (if either) was right is debatable, but the court ordered PKWARE to stop selling ARC compatible programs and to stop using the name "ARC." NoGate Consulting produced a shareware program PAK that can pro- duce ARC compatible files. It squeezes harder than PKARC, but runs considerably slower. It is still faster than SEA ARC. Just now PKWARE released the shareware program PKZIP. It pro- duces .ZIP files (called zipfiles) that are not compatible with ARC. However, it runs as fast as PKARC or even faster, and it squeezes harder than PKARC. Also, with extra compression turned on (by typing the options -ea4 -eb4), it squeezes even harder than NoGate PAK and runs about as fast compressing, and much faster expanding! I benchmarked all these programs by compressing version 1.21 of my ADA-TUTR (Ada Tutor) program, which contains 33 files totaling more than 700K. The files are of a variety of types. I didn't benchmark PKPAK, because it is the same as PKARC except for the file extension. The benchmarks were run on a Toshiba T1200 lap- top. The results show that PKZIP is clearly the winner: FidoNews 6-11 Page 8 13 Mar 1989 PROGRAM: COMPRESSED SIZE: COMPRESSION TIME: EXPANSION TIME: Normal Compression: PKARC v. 3.5 319577 62 secs. 63 secs. PKZIP v. 0.9 297045 61 secs. 66 secs. Maximum Compression: NoGate PAK v. 1.0 287228 155 secs. 154 secs. PKZIP -ea4 -eb4 257399 160 secs. 57 secs. It looks as though Phil Katz actually outdid himself with PKZIP. In normal compression, it runs in about the same time as PKARC, but compresses harder. In maximum compression, it squeezes hard- er than NoGate PAK, compressing in about the same time and ex- panding 2.7 times faster! PKZIP has a few new features, such as the ability to include sub- directories. However, these are unimportant compared with the excellent compression the program achieves. I have no connection with PKWARE, except for being a registered user of PKZIP. However, ------------------------------------------------------------ | I think that ZIP will soon replace ARC as the standard | | for bulletin boards, just as ARC earlier replaced SQZ. | ------------------------------------------------------------ There are more reasons besides the superior performance of PKZIP. First, if I correctly understood SEA's announcement in FidoNews 607, the latest version of SEA ARC is not shareware but a commer- cial program! This is just what I had feared in the article "My Two Cents Worth on PK vs. SEA" in FidoNews 540. Clearly we want a shareware file compressor that can be freely spread around on bulletin boards! Second, Phil Katz explicitly placed the name ZIP and the ZIP file format in the Public Domain, to encourage others to write ZIP compatible software. SEA has not done this with ARC, which is why the court could stop PKWARE from selling ARC compatible software. By placing the ZIP file format and name in the Public Domain, Phil Katz is wisely preventing a repetition of the unfortunate legal battle that recently took place. Some sysops may hesitate to use PKZIP because their bulletin board software (e.g., Opus) can list the contents of an ARChive but not a ZIPfile. However, as ZIP becomes the new standard, the software writers will make their software compatible with it. Who will be the first person to write a ZIPmail program similar to ARCmail? PKZIP is distributed as the self extracting program PKZ090.EXE. You can find it on many bulletin boards, including Society BBS, 1:363/6, 407-773-2831. Get a copy, spread it around, and evalu- ate it. If you like it, register and use it. (Those who regis- tered PKARC need not register PKZIP.) Let's make the BEST file compression method the new BBS standard! FidoNews 6-11 Page 9 13 Mar 1989 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 10 13 Mar 1989 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= "Too zoon oldt unt too late schmart..." by Ken McVay, 1:153/20 There is an inexorable line of progression that seems to impose itself upon those of us who become enamoured of FidoNet. First, of course, is that surge of excitement when you receive your new node number, and your first netmail message. As time goes on, you find yourself becoming more and more interested in some specific area, and, over a period of time, increasingly proud of your clever accomplishments. You become an expert at creating ever more efficient batch files. You watch, you learn from your mistakes, and from your fellows, and your knowledge continues to grow....until perhaps one day you look at your system and smugly say to yourself "Ain't this grand?" You become quite convinced it just CAN'T be improved. And then some gen-u-wine Old Phart who perhaps had "Node 12" when all of this began pops in for a few hours, looks at your system, shakes his head, and says "Have you considered doing that THIS way instead?" Invariably, having implemented his suggestions, you discover that not only has your system become FAR more efficient, but that he has simplified complexities to the point where your mind begins (sigh...) to reel at the new possibilities.....and the circle continues to turn... Such was the case with me, when I began submitting columns about my Almanac extraction system a few weeks ago. Having fought with the task for nearly three years, I was quite certain that I had finally arrived....hell, it was 99% automatic, right? And if my SEAdog batch file had grown to nearly 100K, and its sheer bult had began to impact on everything ELSE the system did, well, that was a small price to pay for the terrific stuff it was doing. Hell, if I had to spend another pile of money on a faster computer, why not? Perhaps I had simply become so terrific at what I do that I had outgrown this screamer in a short 5 months, and it was time to get more toys, right? Wrong. My old net host, Ken Yerex (now 153/1103), dropped in for a weekend's social frolic...Ken is a certified Old Phart if there ever was one, so I started showing off my toys, including my 98K batch file...hey, you show most folks a 98K batch file, and they fall all over themselves telling you how smart you are, right? When I showed it to Ken, however, and told him it was too slow, and I was going to buy a 20MHz machine to solve the problem, he just smiled and said "What on earth for?" FidoNews 6-11 Page 11 13 Mar 1989 He then proceeded to reduce the size of the batch file to 24K, make the entire system lightening fast, and leave on Sunday with a big grin on his face.....and here I sit, 5 years of experience shattered in 4 hours, thinking about all the POWER he gave me to play with...letssee now...I think I can REALLY do some neat stuff NOW....so, you see, the circle turns once again. What did he do? Well, for starters, he introduced me to the CALL command (DOS 3.3 +) and we began creating smaller batch files that wouldn't require searching 1600 lines to edit. He created a RAMDisk of tiny proportions in extended ram, and moved everything into it. Then the REAL education began. Next week I'll show you how Yerex built a Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear :-) Cheers! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 12 13 Mar 1989 Pam Murray Fido 1:340/12 TRAPPED The leopard paces slowly back and forth in his cage. As he looks out through the iron bars, he can see the faces of children and adults laughing at him. A piece of popcorn thrown by a condescending spectator bounces off his nose, and he growls menacingly, leaping against the bars and frightening the people away. The leopard looks longingly out at the open fields and sunny meadows the peacocks and rabbits romp in. The leopard has been living in his cage at the zoo for two years now, and every day the metal grows colder, and the artificial cave he lives in becomes drearier. He was born to be a wild animal, and roamed the open African plains freely until he was captured and imprisoned in the zoo. The leopard slowly heads toward his cage and lies on the cold metal floor. Sure, the attendants spread hay on the floor of his cage so that the cage look more realistic, but the leopard knows that he is lying on reinforced steel; not the warm brown soils of his homeland. The leopard closes his eyes and tries to imagine himself racing after an antelope and dragging his prey back home to eat it, but he is brought back to reality by the resounding echo of a slamming metal door. There were no doors in his homeland, only warm, rolling plains, and long grass that he could hide in. The zookeeper brings the leopard his food. The leopard misses hunting for his own food. Hunting was his livelihood - if not his main reason for living. He thrived on the thrill of the chase and the exhilaration of killing his prey. Now, in the zoo, his food is brought to him. The leopard is becoming fat, and he knows that the aches in his bones are caused by lack of exercise. The leopard snarls at his keeper and climbs his concrete tree. From here he can see his cage in all its grandeur - the flies swarming about his food dish, the stale popcorn and the floor, the artificial turf, the dry hay, and the flourescent lights in the ceiling. The leopard descends from the 'tree' and enters his 'cave'. Here, knowing he will never return to Africa, he lies down to sleep, and never wakes up. Perhaps he is happier this way. No doubt, the leopard's heaven is full of antelope, warm soils, and blue skies. There are rolling plains and long green grass he can hide in there, and he is the king of it all. His heaven knows no cages, bars, or artificial anything. The leopard had died, but we must not mourn him, for he is truly happy now. (P) PAM! ---- FidoNews 6-11 Page 13 13 Mar 1989 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 14 13 Mar 1989 YACK Yet Another Complicated Komment by Steven K. Hoskin ( STEVE HOSKIN at 1:128/31 ) Episode 23: FidoNet Gains Independence! A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away - oops, wrong scene) there was a man with a vision. To see personal computers around the world linked together in an electronic mail network. The network was FidoNet, and the man was Ol' Grandad Fido himself, Tom Jennings. For a long while this vision grew and took form, and the history of FidoNet tells the tale of this expansion, a dream coming to life in the modern-day electronic wizardry of the 20th Century. As the network grew in leaps and bounds, many of the Great Ones in FidoNet repeatedly expressed a desire to form a fraternal organization of FidoNet Sysops; an organization that could be a source of strength when the chips were down; a source of equipment when the hardware was down; a pool of money and legal resources when the law came down in the inevitable user abuse court cases. What they wanted was an organization OF FidoNet Sysops FOR FidoNet Sysops. It was natural to fear that an organization which was collecting and pooling money for this central source of aid would have to pay taxes; and knowing that the money would not come easy, we wanted to lose absolutely nothing we didn't have to. A natural sounding solution was to become a tax-sheltered organization, for example, a non-profit organization. After all, this organization WOULDN'T be making any profit, it would merely be a pool of resources for FidoNet Sysops. The International FidoNet Association (IFNA) was formed as a result of this second dream. Once it was formed as a corporate entity, it fought for and finally received 501(c) status - that of a general not-for-profit organization. Success! Right? Well... Due to the legalisms of BEING a 501(c) company, IFNA must now take all hands off of FidoNet and work FOR THE PUBLIC. Educating the public about telecommunication by disseminating information about FidoNet technology. Not running or helping FidoNet. You're on your own again, FidoNet. Good Luck! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 15 13 Mar 1989 ================================================================= LATEST VERSIONS ================================================================= Latest Software Versions Bulletin Board Software Name Version Name Version Name Version Fido 12k* Opus 1.03b TBBS 2.1 QuickBBS 2.03 TPBoard 5.0 TComm/TCommNet 3.2 Lynx 1.22 Phoenix 1.3 RBBS 1.71D Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.90C* EditNL 4.00 ARC 6.01* SEAdog 4.50* MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 2.0* BinkleyTerm 2.00 Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 D'Bridge 1.10 XlatList 2.90* TPB Editor 1.21 FrontDoor 2.0 XlaxNode 2.32* TCOMMail 2.0 PRENM 1.40 XlaxDiff 2.32* TMail 8901* ParseList 1.30 UFGATE 1.02* GROUP 2.04* EMM 1.40 MSGED 1.99* * 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 6-11 Page 16 13 Mar 1989 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 8 May 1989 Digital Equipment Corporations User Society (DECUS) will be holding its semi-annual symposium in Atlanta, GA. Runs through May 12. As usual sysop's will get together and chat. 19 May 1989 Start of EuroCon III at Eindhoven, The Netherlands 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. 24 Aug 1989 FidoCon '89 starts at the Holiday Inn in San Jose, California. Trade show, seminars, etc. Contact 1/89 for info. 5 Oct 1989 20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 17 13 Mar 1989 ================================================================= REPORTS ================================================================= Don Daniels, Chairman Bylaws and Rules Committee 1:107/210 Report on New IFNA Bylaws The purpose of this report to provide a listing of those bylaws amendments that were passed in the recent election and to discuss some of the ramifications of such passage, in certain instances. Those proposed Bylaw amendments that passed are as follows: DEF.02 DEF.03 DEF.04 DEF.05 DEF.06 01.01 01.02 02/03 04 05 06 07 09 10 11 12 14 16 17 18 19 22 24.01 24.02 24.03 24.04 24.05 24.08 28 29 30 35.01 35.02 39 40.01 40.02 42 43 44 45 In discussing the impact of these bylaws changes, my intention is to skip over those which strike me as relatively insignificant. These include those which clarified "ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING" and "ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING" as opposed to just "ANNUAL MEETING", removed certain responsibilities from the Secretary or extended them to his/her designate, and other similar matters of housekeeping. If, perchance, I've overlooked something you consider significant, then please feel free to respond to the address above or to submit a letter to the editor. Bylaws Amendments Enacted in the Recent Election ================================================ DEF.02 - This amendment changed all references from "IFNA Network/Nodelist" to "FidoNet Network/Nodelist". It is unclear what the effect of this will be considering the Board's action to move further away from FidoNet in response to what was felt as the desire of the membership as expressed in other areas and the purposes of the organization as spelled out in the Articles of Association. DEF.04 - By adding this definition for International Coordinator, IFNA now has formal recognition of the position. However, nowhere else in the bylaws is this position mentioned and the claim that the IC is "elected by the various Zones and Regional Coordinators to arbitrate and rule on Inter-Zonal disputes" is not in accordance with historical fact. This bylaw seems to really be worthless in terms of the current position of IFNA. FidoNews 6-11 Page 18 13 Mar 1989 01.01 - Life members are now entitled to the full rights of such additional membership categories for which they eligible. 01.02 - This amendment is going to create quite a few problems because it was not well crafted. Its intention was to provide some direct representation for FidoNet sysops who were unwilling to join IFNA. The compromise it suggests may be reasonable in intent, but the administrative problems it creates are significant. The board of Directors, recognizing this, has established a processing fee equal to the actual cost per ballot of the past election to cover at least some of this potential administrative burden. However, it is still unclear as to just how to best interpret some of the clauses of this amendment and to apply them to our real-life situation. In addition, current changes of direction as expressed by the board may do much to remove the original problem this amendment attempted to solve. It would appear that the most likely way in which this could actually work is as follows: o Anyone who was listed in the FidoNet nodelist for 180 days prior to the last annual membership meeting may apply to become an at-large member of IFNA. No annual dues are presently associated with this application. [The burden of proof for meeting the requirement has not as yet been allocated; it may be left to the applicant to provide the proof as part of the application.] o Anyone who becomes a member under this clause will therefore become an at-large member for one year and will be entitled to vote as indicated. Ballots will be sent to all such members of record as of the cut-off date established in the rules for the election. How the processing fee will be collected is unclear; probably it will be required to be returned with the ballot, if not required at the time of application. 09 - This amendment should provide for better reporting of the activities of the corporation by reducing the lead time for the reports and by extending the number of reports required. 10 - The previous lead-time requirements for parts of the election process were much too long in practice. Many people discovered that they were too late to respond to the requirments last year. Therefore, these dates have been shortened to more meaningful time frames. However, there are problems with overseas responses; it is expected that procedures currently being implemented will address these problems so that the shortened time spans will not burn one segment of the membership at the benefit of another. 18 - Under the old bylaws, a Director could not be recalled in FidoNews 6-11 Page 19 13 Mar 1989 the last six months of a term; this has now been reduced to three months. 24.02 - This amendment, well intentioned though it may be, is going to present so much of a problem that it is probable that the BoD will have to intercede and change it prior to the next election. The worst thing about it is that it INCREASES the Board of Directors from the current 22 to 24. The Board is convinced that it cannot operate effectively with such a number. Discussions in St. Louis seemed to point to ten as being a more realistic number in order to assure effective participation. However, getting down to so low a number will require additional bylaws changes to account for shortened terms - an unhappy prospect. Meanwhile, please consider the distribution this amendment has created in terms of approximate nodes per voting division: DIV NODES DIV NODES DIV NODES DIV NODES DIV NODES 2 1180 3 257 10 457 11 750 12 190 13 560 14 147 15 263 16 291 17 457 18 563 19 610 Based on 22 directors, there should be approximately 530 nodes in each division. As can be seen from the above, splitting voting division 12 into 12 and 3 was totally unnecessary as their combined level of 447 already resulted in greater representation per node than average. The division which should have been split into two was unquestionably division 2 (1180/2=590). It can also be seen that divisions 14, 15, and 16 should probably be combined or redistributed (147+263+291=701). In any event, the Board has already indicated that it wishes to reduce its membership and that it desires to maintain roughly equal representation. There should soon be an amendment to this bylaw presented to the Board which will effect this for the upcoming election. The Board also considered the problem of international representation. None of the three overseas directors was able to make the recent meeting, and two of them turned out to be completely unrepresented. Obviously, whatever solution that is reached in terms of distribution, must take into account the difficulties of real international representation. 24.08 - This amendment allows the Board of Directors to change the voting Divisions. It is expected that being able to do this will result in fairer representation. As indicated above, some of the Divisions do not provide reasonably fair per capita representation, and it is expected that this will be corrected shortly. 29 - This amendment has removed responsibility for a nodelist from the Vice President - Technical Coordinator, which is more in FidoNews 6-11 Page 20 13 Mar 1989 line with current reality. In addition, it also removes the line declaring responsibility for the "smooth operation of the FidoNet Network." Based on this direction from the membership, the board has moved further away from any direct involvement with FidoNet. 35.01 - See 40.01 below. 35.02 - See 40.01 below. 39 - The policy for FidoNews has been explicitly stated to be "to publish all submitted articles of interest to the FidoNet community, within the bounds of legality and good taste." The only difficulty with this is in determining what is "legal and in good taste" within the FidoNet community, considering it is so large and encompasses so many local variations. The Board has affirmed the power of the Editor to act as the executor of this policy, with the exception that either the Publications Committee or the Executive Committee may override the Editor and cause an article to be published which the Editor had chosen to withhold. 40.01 - With the changes to Bylaw 35, the responsibilities of the Bylaws Committee in the Bylaws amendment process is now made much more clear and the rights of minority groups to demand changes are firmly established. 40.02 - This amendment is a compromise between those that feel that the bylaws should be changed by the BoD and those that feel that they should be changed by the membership. The BoD may hereafter change Bylaws, but all such changes are automatically to be subjected to the review of the membership during the next election. The BoD has since exercised this right, as indicated below. 42 - This new bylaw simply clarifies the order of precedence of new conditions at a BoD meeting. 43 - This new bylaw is intended to dictate the basis upon which IFNA is to relate to various networks. Should various network entities enter into such agreement, it will clarify much of the confusion and reduce the resulatant bad will such has existed in the case of IFNA and FidoNet. 44 - An adjunct to the previous amendment, the establishment of a grievance mechanism to resolve problems within the scope of formal agreements only should also reduce ill will. 45 - The intent of this bylaw is to encourage innovative means of FidoNews 6-11 Page 21 13 Mar 1989 operating IFNA. To date, we have been severely hog-tied due to the fact that there was no basis whereby we were assured we could legally transact business in electronic sessions. This should help to alleviate that problem by giving us the mandate to do so. The only thing that would trip us up on this now is if controling jurisdictions pass laws specifically forbidding the transaction of business through such means. Bylaws Amendments Enacted by the Board of Directors =================================================== 46 - "Official communications of the Board of Directors or Executive Commitee may be presented, in lieu of written form as called for within these bylaws, through electronic means, providing such means are secure and their authenticity verifiable." This bylaw will make it much easier for IFNA officials to do their jobs in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the complete list of these amendments is not available. In addition to the one above, there was one that established how certain IFNA officials could be removed from office. There may have been one more, but I'm not sure as to what it was at present. Hopefully, the transcriptions of the meeting will soon be completed from the audio tapes and will provide this information. Once available, I will prepare a follow-up report. The complete set of the current Articles and Bylaws may be obtained from 1:107/210 as BYLAWS.ARC. It contains ARTICLES.TXT, BYLAWS.TXT, and yymmdd.DOC which specifies the date the file was last revised. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 22 13 Mar 1989 OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION Mort Sternheim 1:321/109 Chairman of the Board Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Vice President-Technical Coordinator Linda Grennan 1:147/1 Secretary Kris Veitch 1:147/30 Treasurer IFNA COMMITTEE AND BOARD CHAIRS Administration and Finance Mark Grennan 1:147/1 Board of Directors Mort Sternheim 1:321/109 Bylaws Don Daniels 1:107/210 Ethics Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Executive Committee Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 International Affairs Rob Gonsalves 2:500/1 Membership Services David Drexler 1:147/1 Nominations & Elections David Melnick 1:107/233 Public Affairs David Drexler 1:147/1 Publications Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Security & Individual Rights Jim Cannell 1:143/21 Technical Standards Rick Moore 1:115/333 IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION AT-LARGE 10 Courtney Harris 1:130/732 Don Daniels 1:107/210 11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Mort Sternheim 1:321/109 12 Bill Bolton 3:54/61 Mark Grennan 1:147/1 13 Irene Henderson 1:107/9 (vacant) 14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5 15 Scott Miller 1:128/12 Matt Whelan 3:54/99 16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628 17 Neal Curtin 1:343/1 Steve Jordan 1:206/2871 18 Andrew Adler 1:135/47 Kris Veitch 1:147/30 19 David Drexler 1:147/1 (vacant) 2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 6-11 Page 23 13 Mar 1989 __ 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 PO Box 41143 St Louis, Missouri 63141 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 second elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. -----------------------------------------------------------------