Volume 4, Number 17 4 May 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings 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. Copyright (C) 1987, 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. Look, Ma! Page Numbers! Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 What's in a Net? ......................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 3 Review: Big Blue Disk .................................... 3 Benchmark Test Results ARC v.s. PKARC .................... 5 FEMINISM Echomail Conference ............................. 6 Calling All IFNA Jokesters! .............................. 7 PC-Desk reviewed ......................................... 8 FNEWSPRN -- A FidoNews Utility ........................... 10 Notes from the UK ........................................ 11 New Fido Sysop Utilities ................................. 14 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 15 Fido and the Hayes modem ................................. 15 The Regular Irregular Column ............................. 20 4. WANTED ................................................... 24 Information Clearinghouse -- A Call for Volunteers ....... 24 5. NOTICES .................................................. 25 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 25 IFNA Board of Directors Ballot ........................... 26 FidoNews 4-17 Page 1 4 May 1987 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= What's in a Net? We've grown some in the last couple of years. Like anything else, we've had our growing pains, but by and large we seem to have developed a pretty stable structure. The very fact of that growth also means that we have many sysops and users out there who weren't here a couple of years ago and didn't see what lead up to the way things are now. So it's probably a good idea to take a look at where we are, how we got here, and why. First there was nothing. Then there was something. Then it grew, and now it's big. End of history lesson. I'm not in the mood to lecture on the History of FidoNet right now. Besides, it's been done already. I just want to ramble a bit on The Meaning of FidoNet and the Answer to the Ultimate Question. (The Answer to the Ultimate Question, by the way, is "Pin 16 and pin 18." Does anybody happen to know what The Ultimate Question is?) But the pins remind me of what started me on this. I spent entirely too much money lately on a town and county map of the U.S., drawn to a scale of about fifty miles to the inch and mounted on foamcore. I then spent entirely too much time on the totally futile endeavor of sticking little color-coded pins in that map based on the latest node list. Ironically, I finished up Thursday night, just in time for Ben Baker to make my map obsolete. Well, at least it might be close for awhile. It was an educational experience. I discovered something significant. At least, I think it's significant. This network is STRANGE. Let me give you some examples: 1) San Francisco has not one, not two, but THREE separate nets. They don't cover separate parts of town -- they are all intertwined. 2) The Pittsburgh net has a hub that includes nodes as far away as Arkansas and California. 3) There is a node in Wisconsin that has TWO net hosts closer to him than his own, and his net consists solely of himself and his host. 4) Dallas and Fort Worth each have their own net (they are right next to each other). Each net includes several nodes in the other city. Meanwhile, Austin has a net that includes several nodes in both Dallas and Fort Worth. 5) There are four states with no nodes at all. No, Alaska isn't one of them. I guess it's understandable. One is Montana, and there really isn't any Montana. It was blown up in an atom bomb test forty years ago, and the government is keeping it a secret. One is Nevada, and there isn't anybody in Nevada FidoNews 4-17 Page 2 4 May 1987 besides tourists at the casinos. One is West Virginia, and there ARE people in West Virginia, but they're all starving coal miners who can't afford computers. I don't remember what the other state was offhand, and I'm nowhere near the map at the moment (see how handy that map is?) I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Why has FidoNet grown so many quirks? I think it's at least partly because many people hold differing views of just what FidoNet really is. Since I'm the one typing at the moment, you'll get my own answer. FidoNet is first and foremost a mail system. It serves a great many special interests, but it does not exist to support any one of them. And by specifically supporting none of them, it can better serve all of them. An example of this is the idea of "special interest nets." We tried that with net 900 for the PCjr crowd. It didn't work out too well. It was too hard to coordinate, leading to all sorts of difficulties ultimately resulting in poorer mail service, which helps no one and harms everyone. FidoNet itself is a technical operation, and must be managed on a technical basis for technical reasons if it is going to properly support the purely technical goals of keeping the mail flowing. Once we handle the technical problems of routing, node list maintenance and distribution, mail throughput, international links, and so forth, then and ONLY then can we address how to USE the network in support of special interests. Please note, I am NOT saying that we should ignore the special interest groups. I'm only saying that we have to address the technical issues first. One mechanism that was developed to support the free flow of ideas and information was that of the local network. Local networks are intended to increase mail throughput, lower costs, distribute node list maintenance, and that's all. Some people have started thinking of local nets as being more important than FidoNet itself. But FidoNet does not exist for the convenience of the local nets. Rather, local nets exist for the convenience of the sysops. Not the sysops who are in the local net, mind you, but sysops who are NOT in the local net. Here is the point of local nets in a nutshell: If I want to send messages to three different nodes in Washington DC, it is more convenient and cheaper for me to place one call than three. For that reason, net 109 exists. There is one other reason as well. It is very inconvenient and costly for me to try to send mail to a node in Washington DC if he's gone off the air. So net 109 has a guy there who is in charge of making sure that the list of nodes in net 109 is correct. I'm in net 107, but net 107 does not exist for my convenience. It exists for yours, so you can reach me cheaper and can be sure that I'm really here. I suspect that in the rush and hassle of day-to-day operation, many people have lost sight of that. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-17 Page 3 4 May 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= The Big Blue Disk I'm sure by now you've seen the ads for the Big Blue Disk that keep showing up in FidoNews. It's sort of a magazine, except that it's published on floppy disk instead of paper. Well, if FidoNews can call itself a newsletter, then I suppose Big Blue Disk can call itself a magazine. I recently acquired a copy of issue #6 and checked it out. It's actually quite impressive. It came in a slick clear plastic package with some snazzy artwork on the "cover". Inside I found an order form for subscriptions and back issues, two floppy disks, and a card giving directions. ("Place disk #1 in drive A:, type 'GO', and hit enter." Even I could manage it.) It only works on an IBM or clone, as everything is done through their own menu system. The disks by the way were black, not blue. A couple of letters to the editor commented on that, but color disks are still expensive enough that I can easily understand not using them for a monthly publication. Some nice graphics. Nice? Seems inadequate. They come up with new stuff like this every month? How in the world do they manage THAT? The instructions say it'll work on a monochrome adapter and in your choice of 40 or 80 column width, but I confess I didn't put them to the test. I assume the snazzy graphics and color would be lost on a monochrome. The whole system is very slick and has some cute touches. For example, when you're at the end of an article and hit PgDn, the entire screen jiggles up and down a couple of times, as if it's trying to pull up more text but getting stuck and tugging the frame. Enough of the mechanics. What really counts is the content, right? Right! And Big Blue Disk has plenty. Issue #6 was the April edition, and contained an interesting April Fool's section; a satire of the Big Blue Disk! It was sort of a mini-magazine within the magazine, with some totally bizarre features that you have to see to believe. In addition there were some interesting and informative news and opinion columns, and several programs. Each program is accessed by a submenu that gives you the option to read the docs, run the program, or copy the program onto your own disk. Not everything is a winner, of course. They had an "attribute selection program" that was pretty trivial by anyone's standards, plus a version of MV that I've seen done better. But the real winner in my opinion will surprise you. I know it surprised me. Of all things, Kalah by Brian Seitz. That's right, the game Brian advertised right here in FidoNews for the better part of a year. Guess what, gang -- it's GOOD! My apologies for ever doubting you, Brian. Your game is better than I would have ever imagined. I killed most of an afternoon FidoNews 4-17 Page 4 4 May 1987 learning to beat the thing at level one. I'm almost afraid to find out what the other three levels are like. I won't describe the game, or you'll think I'm nuts. To hear the rules, it sounds like the dumbest game ever invented. But play it once, maybe twice, and you'll get hooked. From the ads I've seen I gather that the Big Blue Disk often has some amazing things on it. I think their special this month is PC File, and in the past they've offered PC Write. What else do they have in store? I don't know, but I'm sure of one thing: The Big Blue Disk is a Big Blue Winner. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-17 Page 5 4 May 1987 From:Jean Coppola Fido 107/201 Results Benchmark Testing Of Arc Utility v.s. Pkarc Utility The two utilities were tested on a disk containing 15 files with an average file length of 19119 bytes. The total for all files were 286785 bytes. These tests were run on an IBM PC with 640k of RAM and running at 4.77 Mhz clock speed. The files were stored on a 360k floppy disk and archived to a fresh directory on a Miniscribe 20 megabyte hard drive. The floppy disk was diagnosed and condensed (un-fragmented) before the tests were run to be sure of file integrity. All events were run 3 times and the average of the 3 runs is displayed here as the result. =========================================================== Program & Version Operation Average Time MM:SS:HH =========================================================== ARC 5.20 Create 07:22:29 ARC 5.20 Verbose List 00:07:31 ARC 5.20 Extract Files 04:28:39 ARC-E 3.0 Extract Files 01:03:49 PKARC 2.0 Create 01:58:35 PKARC 2.0 Verbose List 00:05:89 PKXARC 3.4 Extract Files 00:53:77 =========================================================== Program & Version File Size Created In Bytes =========================================================== ARC 5.20 197817 Bytes PKARC 2.0 193445 Bytes ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-17 Page 6 4 May 1987 The FEMINISM EchoMail Conference Is Looking for a Few (MORE!) Good Women You're not an ordinary woman--or you wouldn't be reading this. Want a chance to share your views on subjects