F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No. 5 (31-Jan-1994) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | | | FidoNet BBS community | Published by: | | _ | | | / \ | "FidoNews" BBS | | /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: | | | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Internet addresses: | | | | Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com | | Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) | | editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies and other boring but important details, | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== 1. Editorial..................................................... 2 2. Articles...................................................... 3 Censorship - Sailing the Seas of Cheese..................... 3 What Are Them SDN Extension Files?.......................... 4 An Appeal For Proper Use of Language........................ 8 A Review of Macintosh Graphical-Oriented (GUI) BBS's vs Herm 9 Rune's Rag -- An Electronic MagaZine for the 90's........... 15 Introducing................................................. 16 An Introduction to Pascal-net............................... 17 File 2--DEF CON ][ Initial Announcement..................... 18 Does FidoNews accept pomes? If so: ............. 23 My note regarding questions on FidoNet...................... 23 California Legislature online -- free....................... 24 Users can be real demons....................... 26 Quick thinking electrical engineer.......................... 28 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 30 FidoNews 11-05 Page: 2 31 Jan 1994 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== Well, the inevitable policy complaints have arrived. Why am I not surprised? "Policy four says documents should be in English" ... "Please stop sending us Fidonews as the editors feel they are above policy four ...". Etc. First of all, let me make an important point. A letter to Max or I is *not* a "fido document". It is a letter. A letter to the editor, to be sure, but a letter nevertheless. Perhaps the case could be made that the snooze is an official "fido document", but it is stretching real hard. Documents are defined in my dictionary as written or printed matter that provide a legal record or agreement. The only Fido documents that I know of are policy four itself and the FSC documents. It makes a lot of sense to ask that they be in English. It also makes a lot of sense that we attempt to keep the snooze primarily in English, if only because that is the most common language. The articles are, howvever, *our* mail. Most of those articles come in in the form of letters to the editor, and for some backseat lawyer to claim that we cannot receive letters in any language but english is excessively annoying, to my mind. As to whether we should run them, that is the other question. Max and I look at the snooze a bit differently than "just a newsletter". The snooze has a special place in the net, also defined by policy. The snooze serves two purposes. Firstly, it serves as the official place to announce things, and secondly the snooze serves as a sort-of-court-of-final-opinion for net issues. That places some duties upon the snooze that are above and beyond the norm. It cannot exist as only a vehicle for the editors' sense of what is meaningfull. It must, to an extent, be an open forum for the renegade viewpoint, else it cannot fulfil its mandate. We have defended that purpose to the point that we have included tonnes of crap, articles that we personally consider repugnant, on occasion stupid, and often articles that are poorly written and boring. To now cut letters on the basis that they are not in english strikes me as provincial, small-minded, and derelict in our duty. Simply put, the answer is no. FidoNews 11-05 Page: 3 31 Jan 1994 ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Censorship - Sailing the Seas of Cheese Sailing the Seas of Cheese - CensorSHIP now boarding... (subtitle: Look, ma, my first Snooze article!) by Matt Ion Okay, let's try this again. First two times I've tried to write an article, something spooky (probably a renegade TSR) has caused a complete system lockup. I hate this having-to-think stuff. Flamewars are so much more relaxing, requiring little actual thought. BTW, special wave to you Primus fans who get the title. Primus sucks. Heh heh heh heh heh. Anywho, on to the important stuff. Censorship. There's been a lot of talk about it lately in the Snooze, and it's really starting to sound like another one of those "politically correct" terms that everyone uses but no-one really knows what it means ("demeaning" for example... someone disagrees with something, and that thing then "demeans" some group of which this person is a (lunatic?) fringe element.) I think Dennis McClain-Furmanski hit it bang-on the proverbial head in "What An Editor Is For" in Snooze 1104. The editor of a publication, even an electronic one such as this, is saddled with the thankless job of having to make that publication "good." Usually, this means catering to the majority of the target audience. Items are typically rejected because they don't fit that criteria. This is NOT censorship. As Dennis pointed out, "censorship" is when content, editorial and otherwise, is controlled by an OUTSIDE force: government, for example. "Censorship" is what we'd have if any one of us FORCED the Editors to include or exclude something from the Snooze. Most of this talk has centered on certain bits and pieces of the language. What is or isn't a bad word, and so on. Certain four-letter words are often singled out. Let me clarify right away, I don't typically use such language myself, and only VERY rarely in very specific circumstances. Personally, I find it offensive and entirely unnecessary in the volume in which it's commonly used. Then again, let's consider just exactly what some of these bad words really mean. A few years ago, I had a fascinating textfile on the uses of the word "fuck." The gist of the whole thing was that this word denotes an apathetic attitude; ie. to "fuck" someone, as opposed to "making love." When someone says they "don't give a fuck," well, that pretty much fits, no? Likewise, "shit." Technically, it means exactly the same thing as feces, stool, excrement... all perfectly acceptable, technical terms. Other synonyms such as crap, dung, guano, doo-doo, etc. don't seem to garner such reaction as does "shit." FidoNews 11-05 Page: 4 31 Jan 1994 I guess a lot of it depends on the context (the above two examples are hideously over-used, and in improper usage), or the attitude carried with such language. And a lot of it is societal. Heck, "fags" used to be cigarettes. Words' meanings, or at least acceptance of existing meanings, change over time. A few hundred years ago, Pilgrim parents were outraged at the blasphemous words their children had picked up in their everyday play. Shocking, how they could shorten the sacred benediction, "God be with you," into something as vile and filthy as "Good-bye." As Dennis mentioned, the limitations on what will make it into the Snooze are pretty lax as it is; there's very little basis for complaints of "censorship" by the Editors. Personally, I think we could do with a little less Steve Winter, as his presence here tends to initate all manner of flame wars. Or maybe the Editors should just not print flames anymore, merely stamp them "rejected" and return them to their senders, along with a form letter advising them to take it to netmail. That's not to indicate anything personal against Mr. Winter. I happen to be on "his side" on a very fundamental level... however, I DO NOT agree with his tactics of spreading his version of "the Gospel". By the same token, I don't appreciate everyone who jumps all over him for stating and sticking to his beliefs. At times, it seems almost any belief in anything will pass unhindered, until someone brings Christianity or some related religeon into it. It's almost like there's an unwritten anti-Christian thing throughout Fido. Something doesn't seem quite fair here. Granted, some will try to shove their religeon down everyone else's throats... that doesn't mean someone else who casually admits to holding similar beliefs (ie. ME) should have YOUR non-religeon crammed down his/her/its (MY) throat. Capish? Anyways, enough of that. If I'm lucky, this won't make it into the Snooze until 1106, which'll give me plenty of time to recharge the fire extinguishers and get on my asbestos undies. To the Editors: thanks for doing an otherwise thankless job, and doing it well. See ya in the funny papers, Matt Ion -- 1:153/7106 aka MATT@SHIP.NET ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What Are Them SDN Extension Files? Ray Kaliss - SDN Project Manager 1:141/840@fidonet WHAT ARE SDN FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SDN files are shareware author's programs that have been sent to SDN International for processing and distribution to bulletin boards and online services. Each .SDN file is a compression of individual program files into one file (.SDN) for easy downloading. FidoNews 11-05 Page: 5 31 Jan 1994 As an example, you might see this type of listing on the BBS you log into. FILES SIZE DATE DESCRIPTION --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3MENU10.SDN 112987 02/15/93 Three-Menu 1.0 easy DOS menu system MYED410.SDN 648833 02/15/93 My Editor 4.10 programmers text editor OLCOM51.SDN 1290000 02/19/93 ON-Line COM 5.1 full featured terminal Each .SDN extension file contains an author's complete program in compressed form. When you download one .SDN file you have the complete program ready to be un-packaged. The file is named to reflect the program and version number it contains. SDN files, before the release of ARJ v2.41, could be decompressed with NoGate Consulting's PAK compression utility. .SDN files since 1993 can be decompressed using the ARJ 2.41 compression utility or a newer version. The compression utility named ARJ241.EXE can be found for downloading on most of the better bulletin boards where .SDN's are posted. Each .SDN file can be verified for authenticity. It has been secured with two tamper-proof seals. The first seal can be tested with the ARJ.EXE test feature. C:>ARJ T MYED50.SDN If it has verified you will see this banner on screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | *** Valid ARJ-SECURITY envelope signature: | | *** SDN International(sm) SDN#01 R#2417 | | | | This file is an SDN International(sm) Author-Direct Distribution. | | It should be verified for the SDN Security Seal by the FileTest | | utility available at The SDN Project AuthorLine BBS 203-634-0370. | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The second seal can be tested with the FileTest utility by PaceSoft posted at The SDN Project BBS and most BBS'es where you find .SDN files. If it passes both test you can be assured it is a genuine author-direct SDN distribution with contents exactly as the author intended. C:>FILETEST MYED50.SDN If the .SDN file also passes FileTest testing.. you can feel safe to decompress and use the packaged program files. Decompress like this.. C:>ARJ E MYED50.SDN You may find that on some BBS'es the .SDN files may have been renamed in extension from .SDN to .ARJ (MYED50.ARJ) .. if this has been done the SDN security may still exists, ARJ will test the seal and verify it. FileTest may also be used. FidoNews 11-05 Page: 6 31 Jan 1994 WHAT ARE SDA FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Inside every .SDN there is a pure ASCII text file that you can read to get a description of the program. The files name is {SDA.ID}. XMENU EXE 60123 12-11-93 7:44p XMENU DOC 123564 12-13-93 12:00p MENUAPP1 DAT 2345 10-01-93 10:00a --> {SDA ID} 1200 10-12-93 1:00p UTILONE EXE 47567 2-04-93 2:00p On most BBS'es where you can find .SDN files you may also find a message area in the message base where copies of each program's SDA are posted. This makes for easy browsing of all the .SDN programs posted at the BBS. What's neat about this is most BBS'es save your place in the message base when you leave it.. so the next time you login - the messages in that area that you have not read yet are all new arrivals since the last time you were on. READING THE SDA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most of the SDA is a description of the program and it's features. The top lines however can give you some quick information. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | X-Menu 2.1 fast GUI menu system for DOS uses popup menues and mouse| | 1-UTIL JAN93 MENU DOSSHELL GUI X-SOFTWARE | | FILES: xmenu21a.sdn xmenu21b.sdn | | | | Author: X-Software Inc. | |