Volume 7, Number 13 26 March 1990 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | FidoNet (r) | | \ \\ | | International BBS Network | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact Fido Software. FidoNews is published weekly by the System Operators of the FidoNet (r) International BBS Network. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or authorized agents of the authors. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. 1:1/1 is a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are used with permission. Opinions expressed in FidoNews articles are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of Fido Software. Most articles are unsolicited. Our policy is to publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Fidocon Discount Deadline Draws Near! .................... 1 Menu Master Announcement ................................. 2 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 3 A View from the Bridge ................................... 3 Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 5 3. NOTICES .................................................. 7 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 7 FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 1 26 Mar 1990 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Bill Vanglahn 1:1/90@Fidonet As the deadline for the biggest savings to attend this year's convention draws near (April 1), I wanted to clear up a few questions. Q. EXACTLY where is Fidocon being held? A. Fidocon '90 will be held at the Quality Inn Sportsplex in Lyndhurst, N.J. The hotel is approximately 8 minutes from New York City, and about 10 minutes from Newark International Airport. It is located on NJ Route 17, near the intersection of NJ Route 3 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Q. The price of $350.00 is a LOT of money! A. Yes, it is! But, compared to the prices from San Jose (Fidocon '89), it works out to be LESS. The price of $350.00 (valid through April 1) includes hotel, meals, reception party, and the cost of the conference. Last year, people paid well over $400.00, for the same period of time (4 days). Q. I want to bring my spouse (and/or kids). How much would it cost for them? A. For you and your family to attend, the cost for a member your family is $175.00 per person, before April 1. The price increases to $225.00 after that. This price includes hotel room and meals. The latest information is ALWAYS available by file requesting the magic name FIDOCON from 1:1/90. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 2 26 Mar 1990 Dale Barnes Fido 1:375/11 PRODUCT CHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT "Menu Master" has been sold. Effective March 17, 1990, Dale Barnes of Montgomery, AL, is now the owner. All current registered users will be supported. A new updated version in currently in beta testing and will be released when ready with new docs. All registrations should now be sent to the address below. Once registered, you will receive your key via netmail. I believe Menu Master is a great package. It allows you to create new menus for QuickBBS systems. The upcoming version will also support Remote Access BBS systems. You can change any menu or all menus quickly and easily. It is menu driven which makes it a cinch to use and it also supports a mouse. Your ideas and registration will help me continue improving this product. I would like to encourage you to register Menu Master. All registration and any bugs, problems or enhancements should be sent to: Dale Barnes OR Netmail to FidoNet 1:375/11 PO Box 230203 Montgomery, AL 36123-0203 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 3 26 Mar 1990 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= A View from the Bridge "Captain's Log, Stardate 9003.24" This week, I thought I'd take a moment to respond to some hatemail. Thankfully, I don't get much, but Fredric Rice called all the way from Florida just to put me down, and I thought he deserved a reply. Well, since he's not in the nodelist, and in case there are others out there who might think the same way, Fredrick, this column's for YOU: From: Fredric Rice To: Phil Subj: fidonews art > BTW, just for the record, NO, I don't hang up on someone > because they're not in my network. That's the same as hanging > up on someone because they're black, jewish, gay, or poor, no > matter what anybody else says. Private clubs are a thing of the Explain, if you would, what racial prejudice and private clubs have to do with refusal to accept a system access request from a node that's not in your network. Is it possible you didn't get a high school diploma? Perhaps you have spent too much time learning about Jesus and ignored the real-world scientific methodologies expounded to normal children. BTW, just for the record, I take exception to your opinion. From: Phil Buonomo To: Fredric Rice Subj: Re: fidonews art > Explain, if you would, what racial prejudice and private > clubs have to do with refusal to accept a system access > request from a node that's not in your network. Because the basis of "if you're not one of 'my kind' I don't want to know you" is the same root of both evils. > Is it possible you didn't get a high school diploma? No. Is it possible for you to express an opinion without flaming others? > Perhaps you have spent too much time learning about Jesus and FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 4 26 Mar 1990 > ignored the real- world scientific methodologies expounded to > normal children. I would respond to this, but frankly I don't see any logic/point/basis to this comment at all. > BTW, just for the record, I take exception to your opinion. And I disagree with yours. But you don't see me taking you down on your own board because of it, do you? Have a nice day! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 5 26 Mar 1990 Henry Clark 124/6120 Am I Indexes ? -- 7-10 The Death of Shareware and Other Good News -- viewpoint. 7-10 The Big Mistake -- file archive comments. 7-10 Big Blue Subterfuge -- dangers of cooperative processing. 7-10 Honey Learns MSGED -- dangers of cooperative processing. 7-11 In CASE You Wondered -- viewpoint on CASE tools. 7-11 BBS For Sale -- nostalgic look at old front end. 7-11 The Salesmanship Club -- dangers of cooperative processing. 7-11 Danish for Honey -- foreign language processing. 7-12 The Art of Deception -- high and low level languages. 7-12 "Plug Away" -- machine generated messages. 7-12 Interface 90 -- viewpoint on OSI. 7-12 Tax Time, Honey -- working overseas. 7-13 Am I Indexes ? -- global information indexing. 7-13 Compuserve Blues -- problems with messages. 7-13 The Big Trip -- rest and relaxation. 7-13 Counting Carlsbergs -- little known facts. Since everybody is going to be back indexing the world in the 90's, I figured I'd get a head start now. I suppose in about 4 years, indexes and indexing services will have grown so large, that they too will need indexing, leading to the Index Behemoth Corp.'s buy out of World Index and Media Production Systems by 1997. This will leave only one major player who in fact, knows where anything is that you need. While you're at it, think about that nodelist... Oh, and "Am I Indexes ?" Yes, Plain-O-Dexes. Compuserve Blues -- What's FIDONET got that Compuserve doesn't ? The list is endless. I am especially disappointed in the horrible message gathering facilities, now that CIS has become so active. No archived message facility means you pull messages for later reading in LOG mode, straight ASCII transfer. I tried out the PC MAGazine forums, first the editorial forum, and then the programming forum. What a pain in the butt. At 2400 bps ( really ) I saw no other way than to turn on SCROLL and start logging the messages. It took an hour to pull off 4 days worth of messages out of two forums. ( Grabbing calculator ) that's almost 90 bucks per month! Is it worth it, NO! I'm thinking this is close to the cost of ALL echomail traffic for our net per month. No comparison at all... FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 6 26 Mar 1990 I can see reducing online time by selecting specific threads; this amounts to a terrible guess as to suitability. Something has to change. I'll still use it to get the FILES though . The Big Trip -- Well, it's travel time again for the Clark family. We are off to Santa Barbara to visit my sister. She's this hot EW programmer ( that's E-lec-tronic War-fare ). Remember the Stark, the ship with the hole blown in the side by Iraq ( how embarrassing ). My sister's system was the one to stop that missile, if it had been turned on. My four-year-old and I will hit Dizzy-land and pay a call on old Mickey. ( Gawd, I hope his suit has been recently dry cleaned. ) A little golf, some work type effort in Thousand Oaks ( gotta pay for it you know ), and just some general stress relieving. Sort of an OPUS-FAM for the brain. Counting Carlsbergs -- Here's a little known counting method employed by Danes. They count by 20s ( we call it a score, Danes call it a 'snes' ( long e ). Not only do Danes count by 20s, they use a sort of clock language. Like we say "half past five", Danes refer to that as "half till six". Now we get to the counting and the Danish words for 50, 60 : it's "half till three twenties" and "three twenties" ( you got it? ). 70 and 80 are "half till four twenties" and "four twenties", and 90 is "half till five twenties". Even more unbelievable is that a hundred is, in fact, called a hundrede ( long u ). And a thousand, well it's 'tusind' ( long u ), but considering that Danes cannot make any of the dozen or so 'TH' sounds, this is probably OK. The 'ones' digits, you asked. Yes, BEFORE the tens digits. As in "five and half till five twenties", all that for 95. So now you know why Honey always quotes todays shopping bill in Danish; I fall asleep before she finishes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 7 26 Mar 1990 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 3 Jun 1990 Comdex/Spring, which will run from June 3-6 in Atlanta, will be held at the World Congress Center and other locations. 5 Jun 1990 David Dodell's 33rd Birthday 12 Jun 1990 Fifth anniversary of FidoNet's switch to multiple nets. 13 Jul 1990 Start of Eurocon / Techcon conference in Antwerp, Belgium. Further information will follow. 27 Jul 1990 The beginning of the REGION 17 Convention at Menucha Resort in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. For details contact Ken Zwaschka, 1:105/54. 1 Aug 1990 Start of FidoCon '90. Contact Bill Vanglahn at 1:1/90 for details. 5 Oct 1990 21st Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" 6 Nov 1990 First anniversary of Van Diepen Automatiseert, 2:500/28 14 Nov 1990 Marco Maccaferri's 21rd Birthday. Send greetings to him at 2:332/16.0 1 Jan 1991 Implementation of 7% Goods and Services Tax in Canada. Contact Joe Lindstrom at 1:134/55 for a more colorful description. 16 Feb 1991 Fifth anniversary of the introduction of Echomail, by Jeff Rush. 7 Oct 1991 Area code 415 fragments. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties will begin using area code 510. This includes Oakland, Concord, Berkeley and Hayward. San Francisco, San Mateo, FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 8 26 Mar 1990 Marin, parts of Santa Clara County, and the San Francisco Bay Islands will retain area code 415. 1 Feb 1992 Area code 213 fragments. Western, coastal, southern and eastern portions of Los Angeles County will begin using area code 310. This includes Los Angeles International Airport, West Los Angeles, San Pedro and Whittier. Downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities (such as Hollywood and Montebello) will retain area code 213. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. -----------------------------------------------------------------