Volume 7, Number 29 16 July 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 How Big is FidoNet? ...................................... 1 Announcing The Programmers Distribution Network! ......... 2 Remote Control and You ................................... 4 2. NOTICES .................................................. 6 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 6 FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 1 16 Jul 1990 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Mike Riddle 1:285/27 HOW BIG IS THE NETWORK? From time to time, some of us (far be it from me to suggest that there may have been a brewski or two in the room, or that the room was full of net 285 sysops) have wondered how big the network really is. After all, my knowledge is the space the NODELIST takes up on my disk, and we all /know/ that it's full of duplicates because of coordinators and hubs and zones and such. Right? As part of a class I'm taking in Mass Media Law, I had occasion to wonder a little more critically. The only published figures were several years old, and mentioned the 3,000 - 4,000 range. So I decided to do a little checking. My method was to import the nodelist into a database and check for duplicate telephone numbers. There were 1525 duplicates, base on NODELIST.194. Of these, 345 were annotated "duplicate" because the telephone number is "-Unpublished-". So, not being wanton or frivolous enough to hand check 345 telephone numbers, I'm assuming that coordinators, regions and such aren't likely to have the number -Unpublished-. So, I added back in the -Unpublished count. The final figure, of presumably physically independent nodes, is 8739 entries less 1525 duplicates plus 345 -Unpublished- ======================= 7559 nodes and that's the way it is, as of NODELIST.194. Trivial Pursuit fans please take note, everyone else (including yours truly) just try to figure out why I bothered! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 2 16 Jul 1990 Erik VanRiper Fido 1:260/230 The Programmers Distribution Network (PDN) is here! After being forced to log on to BBS's all over the world to find the latest CXL library, (mostly because I cannot afford C$erve or the phone bill!) or a Library for Fossil Routines, I would think to myself: "Why is there no means for transferring these kinds of files like there is for the SDS?". Well, I finally decided to do something about it. On Monday, July 9th, I did a mass mailing to all the nodes in Zone 1 with a USDS flag in the nodelist. Some I could not get through to, for unknown reasons, but for the 100 or so I did get through to, I received an overwhelming response within 12 hours. I also found a few Nets doing this same idea more locally and they have agreed to join forces. A lot of people came up with many ideas on how things should be distributed, and I have taken them all into consideration. I figured that the best way to handle the distribution would be to set up one node in each Region, then have that coordinator pass the files to their own Region, and off to one other Region. We would (of course) use TICK, because it works! Things will be set up in the following fashion: Area Name Area Description ========= ================ CEE Any MSDOS related C or C++ files PASCAL Any MSDOS related Pascal files BASIC Any MSDOS related Basic files ASSEMBLY Any 80xxx related Assembly files BATCH Any .BAT related files PDNOS2 Any OS/2 related files PDNOTHER Any Amiga, Macintosh, etc. related files LANGUAGE Any Other files that do not fit under the other areas (Unix, Modula-2, Cobol, etc). In the above chart, I refer to "files" as Libraries, Object code, or Source code in each area. I would also ask that the author (or authorized agent) please make sure that the file being entered into the PDN be documented, and functional. I would like to not see "CrippleWare" or "VaporWare" included. Only Public Domain and ShareWare should be submitted. The following Nodes have volunteered to be Regional Distribution points for the PDN: FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 3 16 Jul 1990 Region Node ====== ==== 10 102/531 11 121/99 12 240/507 13 260/230 * See Note 1 14 100/555 15 302/5 16 141/730 17 140/53 18 116/36 * See Note 2 19 397/2 * Note 1: A Gateway between Zone 1 to Zones 2 and 3 has been arranged via Mark Howard (260/0). * Note 2: 116/36 has provided gateways to the following Zones: 6, 8, 29, 99, and GTNet. If you are in a different Zone, or if you would like more information on the PDN, please contact one of the above PDN_RC's, and File Request PDNINFO.ZIP. If you are interested in distributing the PDN for your Net, please contact one of the above PDNRC's to pick up the area(s) your Net wants. There will also be two message Echo areas created, and they will be passed during the distribution of the files. One will be for the PDNRC's to coordinate the transfers, and the second will be used by the users of individual BBS's to enable a conference for support. Happy Programming! :-} ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 4 16 Jul 1990 Christopher L. Browne Fidonet 1:141/735 Remote Control and You "What? That database isn't working? Can you tell me what error message you're seeing?....happens too fast eh?...hmmm...Sounds like I'll need to hop the next red-eye to Los Angeles. That's ok, this Connecticut weather is bumming me out anyway. Hope the boss signs that travel voucher. This could get expensive..." Remote control. It's a pretty simple concept actually. One device being controlled by another device without any true physical contact between the devices. We use it everyday with our cable, TV, and stereo systems. I personally am the proud owner of 8 "clickers"! When applied to the PC's on our desks at both home and work, it is the same concept. Using the example above, remote control can save the techie some considerable time and money. The administrator in LA needs only to run a "host" program and then sit back while the techie modems in from Danbury with the "guest" program, diagnoses the problem with the database and even fix it while connected. Everything that the techie is doing is being done on the PC in LA yet it is being controlled remotely from Danbury. Pretty neat eh? The possibilities are almost endless! A good true life example exists in Utah. At the bottom of a lake, a PC is sealed in a box with phone and power cables routed from the shore. This PC has equipment and software that monitors water temprature and flow and controls flood gates for a dam nearby. Attached to the PC is a modem. The person in charge of this system (whose office is about 50 miles away), can see exactly what is happening and can make emergency adjustments at any time simply by calling this PC and remotely controlling it. No trip to the lake has to be made. At the software level, all that is being done is redirection. The video output from LA is being sent and maybe translated to the video display of the Danbury machine. The keyboard input from Danbury is being sent to and processed by the machine in LA. Some remote control programs even re-direct printer output. Most remote control programs provide file transfer as well. Now, you are probably asking me why I'm writing this. I have recently created an echo conference that deals with this topic - remote control. I know that MANY people do use it. I know that MANY people don't. I know that MANY people don't understand it. The goal of this conference, called REMOTE, is to educate those that don't understand and assist those that use remote control software. REMOTE's sideline goals are to induce new ideas for the market, discuss problems with current or previous attempts at remote control, and keep the user aware of this little niche of the software industry. FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 5 16 Jul 1990 As moderator/creator of REMOTE, I can only hope that people realize that a forum of this type could really benefit both the user and sysop of any bbs system in Fidonet. Remote control software is BIG. Each commercially available package is selling in the millions while there is a growing presence of remote control shareware and public domain software. A node that carries this conference could use it as a selling point to attract users! REMOTE is currently available from my system, theWeb! 1:141/735, along with a majority of the HUBS of Net 1:141 in Connecticut. With a bit of luck and lot's of usage, REMOTE could even become a backbone echo! Christopher L. Browne Creator/Moderator of REMOTE theWeb! 1:141/735 (203)790-6612 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 6 16 Jul 1990 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 27 Jul 1990 The beginning of the REGION 17 Convention at Menucha Resort in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. For details contact Ken Zwaschka, 1:105/54. 1 Aug 1990 Start of FidoCon '90. Contact Bill Vanglahn at 1:1/90 for details. 17 Aug 1990 Start of first ever Searchlight SysOps convention in Chicago, IL. Contact Marge Robbins at 1:283/120 for details. 5 Oct 1990 21st Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" 6 Nov 1990 First anniversary of Van Diepen Automatiseert, 2:500/28 14 Nov 1990 Marco Maccaferri's 21rd Birthday. Send greetings to him at 2:332/16.0 1 Jan 1991 Implementation of 7% Goods and Services Tax in Canada. Contact Joe Lindstrom at 1:134/55 for a more colorful description. 16 Feb 1991 Fifth anniversary of the introduction of Echomail, by Jeff Rush. 7 Oct 1991 Area code 415 fragments. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties will begin using area code 510. This includes Oakland, Concord, Berkeley and Hayward. San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, parts of Santa Clara County, and the San Francisco Bay Islands will retain area code 415. 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. FIDONEWS 7-29 Page 7 16 Jul 1990 5 Jun 1997 David Dodell's 40th Birthday If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. -----------------------------------------------------------------