Volume 7, Number 13 26 March 1990
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| FidoNet (r) | | \ \\ |
| International BBS Network | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
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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
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ARTICLES
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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.
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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
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FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 3 26 Mar 1990
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COLUMNS
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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!
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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
<grin>.
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.
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FIDONEWS 7-13 Page 7 26 Mar 1990
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NOTICES
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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.
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