/*
* CITANEWS / The INTERnational newsletter about room-based BBS systems
* April 1988
* This issue assembled by Steve Yelvington
* This newsletter may be distributed freely.
*/
In this issue of CitaNews:
* A NEW SUCKER, AH, EDITOR STEPS FORWARD
* INTERNATIONAL REPORTS FROM CANADA AND ITALY
* C86 GETS STATUS BAR, .READ USER COMMAND
* STADEL CONVERTED FOR PC CLONES
* LOTSA UDDER STUFF
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* A NEW EDITOR FOR CITANEWS
* Dave Quick, a/k/a The Badger
*/
I, Steve Yelvington, being of sound mind and body, or at least good
enough to fool most of the people most of the time, do hereby bequeath
the title of CitaNews editor to Dave Quick a/k/a The Badger, who
in an apparent lapse of good judgment has offered to take over the chores.
Please note that "editor" does not equal "sole contributor."
For CitaNews to work, correspondents are needed. If you run a BBS,
have programmed a BBS, use a BBS or just can't control your urge to
write, your contributions are needed.
I've enjoyed compiling CitaNews from the start, but I find that I
just don't have the time to do a proper job of it. Transferring the
project to Dave in New York may help CitaNews escape the Minnesota
geocentrism that tends to creep in. Dave is planning to get the "long
legs" of PC Pursuit, which should help him stay in touch with systems
across the USA.
Dave will continue to monitor the CitaNews room at Test System,
US 612-866-1804, as well as the net.gossip and other net rooms on
Pell, US 612-377-9239. He also can be reached in Mail> on those
systems; his username is The Badger.
We also have the promise of a regular column from Canada and more
contributions from Europe. With the C86 and STadel networks rapidly
expanding, the several Unix projects and some two dozen forms of
Citadel-based software running on systems as small as Commodore 64s
and as big as multiuser minicomputers, there certainly is plenty to
write about.
I will continue to contribute to CitaNews, and urge you to do so as well.
-- Steve Yelvington
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* PROMOTE YOUR BBS
* Be sure you're listed in the national BBS list
*/
The national list of room-based BBS systems has been taken over by
Bill Karpowicz @ Sinkhole Utopia US 203-873-8518. The deadline for
the monthly list is the 20th. SYSOPS ONLY should leave a message
for Bill and it should include the following information:
System name number bps software sysop date
Aardvark ! 902-454-0199 o 1200 Cit86 V3 Stuart Glen 87Dec
^
policy: o for open, etc.
Bill can be contacted at Sinkhole Utopia, Pell (US 612-377-9239) or
Funny Farm (US 317-842-7564).
The list is distributed as RSYSxxxx.LST, where xxxx is the date
(0488 for April 1988, for example.)
Here are some new systems you might want to call and welcome to
the Citaworld. The messages were monitored at various points.
88Mar02 11:47 pm from C.J. Linstruth @ Pell
Hi all, there are two Citadels I'd like to make known Nationwide.
The Genuine Aloha Ukelele US (804) 421 9134 CJ 300/1200
Nodename Ukelele
Busted Flush US (804) 495 9549 Chuck 300/1200
Both are open systems and ukelele is just getting established.
Busted Flush Nodename = Cocotel.
88Feb26 7:47 pm from kevin shumaker @ Pell
Howdy! Just a note to let Y'all know there's a NEW STadel in Indy!...
Luna Free State US (317) 298-8490 1200 STadel 3.1f Mycroft Holmes IV
88Mar13 2:44 pm from Eric Griff @ Utica College, NY
All,
USA (Utica Super AmigaDel) is now up in Utica, NY. The number is (315)
724-0624. It is only Part time, and not networked at this time. The hours
are as follows
Monday: 2AM-9:30PM
Tuesday: 2AM-9:30PM
Wednesday: 2AM-7:30PM
Thursday: 3AM-6AM,11AM-3PM
Friday: 2AM-7:30AM,9AM-2:30PM
Saturday: 6AM-1PM
Sunday: 6AM-1PM
88Mar15 11:02 am from laird popkin @ Pell
BLADERUNNER BBS is up in Boston at 617/891-7338. I am working on what seems
to be becoming a major hack--making STADEL vt52 dependent and doing some
nifty screen effects. Has anyone else done this? Suggestions? Comments?
Thanks. The name is Laird Popkin (mine). The BBS is running on an ST w/a
20Mb HD (for now, I can add 3 more of any capacity!) The software running
now is unchanged, but I have the screen stuf in development.
-----
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* PAOLO VENTA'S REPORT FROM ITALY
* Citadel Italiano? Si!
*/
(Contributed by Paolo Venta, sysop, ST-Log, Milan, Italy)
It was the end of August when a friend of mine downloaded from Bix version
3.0c of STadel. When I first saw that piece of software I could not even
understand where the files were gonna be, nor the way a user could download
them! After reading docs, with some more knowledge on STadel, I called Pell
just to look at the latest version orc was working on.
He was at the keyboard, we had a chat, he promised me version 3.1a.
I was contacted by ATARI ITALIA for their official BBS a week later, and
we planned ST-log to be ready by 16 september 1987.
ST-log was born on that day, running v3.0c, on a 1040ST with SH204 HD and
a SX212 modem.
Now, this is funny, you need to know that aside of the BBS there's a huge
IBM/36 with its lousy printer and the console terminal.
In those days both Atari and IBM were getting energy from the same plug,
and everytime people powered on and off their stupid /36 the BBS were
resetted. Soon STadel started having HD problems, sectors were formatted,
data lost, finally the SH204 died. Too bad.
Things changed once I got 3.1a from orc; new board, new plugs, new HD.
I upgraded to 3.1c in November (don't remember exactly), and never changed
until now (3.2a beta testing).
I translated all of the help files Into italian, and my users could finally
learn how to use STadel too.
I added a second hard drive in genuary, and put up the network with pell
sharing STadel) and Dumpster) daily.
I had A LOT* of problems with those intercontinental calls: the most common
was the not-established sessions due to timeout.
It takes 45 secs to get the line with Pell at 4:30am here, and for that
orc added a #timeout in ctdlcnfg.sys into 3.1c.
Also the phone numbers structure is different from the US one:
you've got "xxx-yyy-zzzz" syntax, we haven't got a defined one.
sometimes prefix is 2 numbers long, sometimes 5 numbers.
The phone itself can be 5-8 long.
Moreover, to call Pell I need to put a 001 as international prefix..
Thanks to orc all of this is now solved, and the network really works daily.
It usually takes 3-5 days to receive netmail from l/d systems.
My users enjoy this kind of BBS, although they are used to Opus only.
There are about 400 registered users here, and the BBS is busy for 90% of
its time (lots of software to download!).
I am using Pcommand as command interpreter, and i worked out a "reservation"
calltime for aides, using events. One aide can book his call and be sure that
on that time BBS will be free, waiting for him.
What else? STadel is phunny to administrate, there are really few bugs, and
here at ST Log things are always OK. I had no crashes since november 1987!
What for the future?
Two new BBS should start here in Italy in the next months: one in Napoli
(Naples), another one in Torino (Turin). Maybe a third one in sicilia
(Sicily), if "mafia" won't stop it (hehe).
I am looking for other European STadels, with whom I would like to net.
I would take charges to be the European gateway..
Greetings from ST-log in Milano, North Italy.
011-392-66010079
*changing to 011-392-6193757 in few weeks*
300-1200 baud CCITT (only bell 212 compatible at 1200 baud)
Paolo Venta, SysOp
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* REPORT FROM CANADA
* By our cold-weather correspondent, the Stainless Steel Rat
*/
88Mar09 10:09 am from SSR @CHAOS II-Alberta CA to Steve Yelvington
Great Citanews (0388) - Nice to see it return.
Well, upon reading it; I figured I should add my two cents for what it's
worth about some of the articles in there. (and clarify a few points).
Here goes nothing:
______________________________________________________________________
I guess first of all Edmonton nodes update:
Computer Works is now standalone doing no networking.
A new system Forgotten Realms (CA 403 459 8025) 300 baud is up;
this system is dedicated to RPG playing only and does a little local
netting. (Not on the LD link yet, but we'll see).
Quincunx (CA 403 455 1701) STadel 2400 baud is now on the net LD and all,
in the short period of a month it's exploding with action. You've probably
already noticed the banner floating in Gateway etc.
Alkham Asylum (CA 403 277 4117)
2400 baud running C-68 (v2.14) in Calgary. It is linked up via Chaos II for
backboning via Test System to the states. I guess in a way, Chaos has become
the Alberta feed for Test System.
Secret Service (2400 baud) is now backboning Pell up here for the ST users.
Poopsie in Calgary appears to have disappeared.
That's basically what's happening up here node wise, although we look forward
to seeing a Red Deer, Alberta Citadel 86 going up in a few weeks, and
possibly another citadel in Edmonton (Commodore 128).
___________________________________________________________________________
Multitasking C-86: I run a 12 Mhz AT clone and used Desqview sucessfully to
run the board for a couple of months. However, Desqview (Ver 1.3 and 2.01)
is a memory hog and I have recently changed to Double Dos. The basic report
on this is that they both seem to have no problem running C-86 in a 275K
window. It is VERY important that your window be this large otherwise you
get real weird things happening. Right now Chaos II runs in the background
with little fuss. The only complaint I have is that both program tend to
jerk the output of the BBS while running heavy I/O tasks in the other windows
(I guess I'm fussy?).
If anyone is having trouble setting up a C-86 with either Desqview or Double
Dos; I'll be more than glad to do what I can to get them going.
(A side comment though: Multitasking a BBS on a PC should really only be
attempted with at least a 8Mhz 8088 machine. A standard 4.77 Mhz machine is
just going to spend too much time in overhead to make either application run
properly speed wise)
Anyhow, I guess that's my 2 cents. (which works out to about 1.6 cents
American). Hopefully this time next month I'll have a comment on a new
editor for C-86 that is in the works. (the idea is impressive; we'll see how
the implementation goes).
If you have any questions; want information, whatever, just let us know.
I'm sure that I can manage to find a sucker (sorry I mean volunteer) to write
a short column for Citanews from the Alberta perspective if wanted. Let me
know.
SSR - Sysop of Chaos II
88Mar09 11:39 am from SSR @CHAOS II-Alberta CA to Steve Yelvington
I forgot one thing. I am currently carrying all the newest versions of the
various Citadels on Chaos for downloading. (STadel, C-86 and C-68). I am
open to putting any other versions of Citadel/Stonehedge etc software in
their own areas if authors would send the various versions to me via mail or
upload them. Mail address?
Chaos II
#1203 11111 - 87 Ave
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 0X9
That should get it here. Anyhow, this applies mostly for people up north I
believe, but someone mentioned that I should tell people down south as it
looks like there's not a system with all versions/many versions on it.
(STadel/C-86/C-68). I actively seek out updates on so there will always be a
current version of those here. Any others, I will put up whatever gets
sent.
Be aware that Chaos is one of the systems using download limits, 30 minutes
for 4pm 12am, 45 for 8am-4pm and unlimited during the night. If there is a
request, I will open a net window early in the morning for file morning,
otherwise the current net session is 3:00-3:30 (which is 4:00-4:30 Minnesota
time).
I don't know if any of this is really relevant, but there it is.
P.S. (It looks like I've found a person who is willing to do about a page a
month for a Edmonton contribution to Citanews; I'll let you know more after
our weekly meeting) <Yes, we in Edmonton are a bit strange, the sysops and a
few others get together for pizza and beer every Thursday night>.
SSR
(Editor's note: A regular column from Canada is in the works.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* BABEL BABBLE
* A note from the USA's great Northwest
*/
88Mar19 4:38 pm from bob perigo to sysop
hi, i'd like to correct my listing in the nat rm sys lst:
I've run Babel out in seattle (206-363-8969) @ 3-2400 baud continuously
since Jan 1985. It started with the mod of cit211 by kerry kyes & maher.
As soon as less than 1/2 of the code was as Jeff wrote it, i changed the
name of the program to Babel. That was a year before bruce king took the
name to use for his unix bbs.
My bbs was always babel but used to greet the user with: "Welcome to the
babble on Babel" Anyway, i'd appreciate it if you could correct my entry
from babble to "Babel" I don't care what you put down for program. Cit
would be ok since it still runs in CP/M but babel301.arc is how i've got the
source posted on various boards.
thanks
bob perigo
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* NEW COMMANDS AND A STATUS SYMBOL FOR CITADEL-86
* CitVid dresses up the sysop's video display
*/
Hue, Jr.'s Citadel-86 has gained several new features recently.
One is a status bar for the sysop's screen to dress up the display;
the others are new commands that can search out messages written by
any given user or containing any phrase (good for isolating that ONE
message that you wanted to capture).
From himself:
88Mar09 6:44 pm from Hue, Jr. to citadel
hi, folks, this is V3.04 of Citadel-86 -- .Read User ...
To use it, type .RU{NFGORA}, which means you can pick the direction of the
search. (ex. .Read User Forward <c/r>) The system will then prompt for a
name, which you supply, and then the messages in the room will be examined.
Those which have authors matching the name you typed will be printed. You
needn't specify the entire name, a fragment will do fine, such as "Jr." for
Hue, Jr.
88Mar23 10:18 pm from Hue, Jr. to citadel
We're now at V3.05 of Citadel-86, due to the addition of the .Read Phrase
... command. This lets you search the contents of a room for messages which
match a phrase that you give the system. For instance,
.Read Phrase Forward <C/R>
will cause the system to ask you for a phrase to search on, and then go
through the room that you are in, looking at each message (in forward order)
and printing those that have the phrase that you put in.
Just another Feep brought to you by FEEP INTERNATIONAL, an DIVISION of
TIMEWASTERS, Ltd., a group of people devoted to those who can find little to
waste their time with.
------------
(And here's a description of the status bar modification.)
88Mar06 6:13 pm from Hue, Jr. @ C-86 Test System
Steve .. GurgleKat of Kat's Alley (aka NO CARRIER) offered to write some
video routines that would allow the sysConsole of C-86 to be prettied up. I,
having no pride, accepted.
V1 and V2 of the routines had the bugs that you usually get.
V3 works on everything except PJ's and Biko's machines.
V4 works on everything ... but performance during scroll is unacceptable on
my machine -- you can actually see the memory copies taking place as it tries
to scroll the screen in the window (V4 uses the Turbo C 1.5 window routines;
the earlier versions uses custom code that he wrote himself).
I quite like what Gurgly did, myself. Makes for a very handsome status bar
across the top, and in the future I hope he'll make the info available for me
to choose between inverse or normal video status bars. Generically, it looks
like this:
"Citadel-86 V3.03: <current user> <time of carrier> <active options>
<system clock>"
If no one's logged in, current user is blank. If the system is inactive
(MODEM mode, no carrier), the time of carrier is also blank. "active
options" only has two possibilities: 'C' if Chat Mode is on, '^T' if the
Sysop has activated the ^T option while the user is on. Finally, the system
clock is always active, and changes every minute (unless in network mode or
during downloads/uploads or long reads).
The Z-100 version of C-86 also has the status bar available, since it was
easy for me (relative to the PC video stuff) to write the equivalents to make
a status bar. However, it is different from the PC version in that the
status bar goes across the bottom of the screen, rather than the top, and the
choice between inverse video status bar and non-inverse video is already
there.
I look forward to the time that Gurgly figures out this last bug; I'm much
pleased with what he's done already.
88Mar06 10:42 pm from Songbird @ C-86 Test System
I like the bar on the bottom. Maybe because our system terminals at work
look very similar. Their status bar also indicates "polling".
When I first saw the status bar on Citadel, I was nonplussed at the
flickering that occurs during different operations, but I quickly got used to
it. Now I can't live without it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* STADEL: MOVING ON, A PC PORT AND A STATUS BAR
* Orc prepares to pack his bag, move way down yonder
*/
David Parsons (orc@pell), the byte-pusher behind STadel, Teeny Shell
and Levee (a vi-style text editor), is planning to pack his bags and
move from snow-covered Minnesota to a far, far warmer place.
New Orleans is a high probability, he reports:
88Mar23 12:52 am from orc @ Pell
Remember back a few months when I was worried about the network being
overly dependent on Pell and wanting to change that by making people take
their newsfeeds off other systems?
Well, that's an issue again. In June, I'm gonna be moving out of
Minnesota. I will probably be moving to New Orleans; it may be somewhere
else, but it's gonna be someplace other than Minnesota. If you don't want
your systems to (a) do l-d calling to the southern half of the USA or (b)
don't want to lose access to Pell for two weeks (the minimum amount of time
to have a new phone line installed, to set up the system, to get a new Usenet
newsfeed, and to notify the world of the new address), look into setting up
some alternate routings for the network rooms.
Thank you, the Mgmt.
--------------
Orc hasn't been devoting all his attention to the potential move,
though -- he's been polishing and debugging STadel 3.2a (now in beta
testing at several locations) and simultaneously porting STadel
to his AT&T Unix PC -- on both the Unix and PC "sides" of the machine.
He reports that the PC version is completed and running, but official
release will be held up until STadel version 3.2a. That probably
means June.
Work on the Unix version continues.
Pell has been running a 19.2-kilo-bps modem lately, testing high
speeds for both STadel and UUCALL, the STadel/Usenet internetworking
program.
STadel also has added a system status bar for the sysop's display
similar to that provided by the CitVid modification to Citadel-86.
The status bar employs a little system trick from John Stanley that
in essence fools the ST about how many lines are available on the
TOS screen. (Programmers: Contact orc for sources.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* A CLARIFICATION ON CITADEL PLUS
* Corvair's version is not for the C128 only
*/
88Mar17 2:55 am from Corvair @ C-86 Test System
George Jetson, I heard something today, or I should say read something, that
isn't quite true. It concerned Citadel Plus. I'm not sure what it was all
about, but just so things are a little clearer for everyone. Citadel started
out on a CP/M operating system and has been ported to many computers since. A
particular version that I maintained I ported to the C128 computer in the
CP/M mode. When I finally got that monster of a computer figured out, the
CP/M was version 3.0, also known as CP/M Plus. The lifespan of the first
Commodore Citadel version was about a day, before I took the Plus from CP/M
Plus and added it to my Citadel. At the same time, we were at Citadel version
2.256 or some such (yes a lot of trial and errors...) and since that was out
of hand and a major breakthrough had come about, I also started the Citadel
Plus version as 3.0 to comply also with the 3.0 of CP/M that it was capible
of running on. Currently it's at 3.14 and I hear is available for download as
the .COM and .C files on Black Service.
What I read was something like it was a Citadel for the C128, which isn't
quite true. It also maintained compatiblility with the other computers that
it ran on in CP/M, including the KayPro, Z100, and the Digilog, plus who
knows what else now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* NET NOTES FROM PORTLAND
* An networked exchange regarding exchanges among networks, neturally
*/
(The following conversation is excerpted from the net.gossip room
carried by the STadel network and monitored at Pell. Paragraph breaks
were inserted to protect the reader's sanity.)
88Mar08 12:09 pm from Lisa Gronke @ Great Corrupter, OR
Bty, the (FidoNet) Net 105 sysops have a monthly meeting (which happens
to be tonight. One of the topics on the agenda is the FidoNet <--> OtherNet
gateways. I am going to be writing user instructions on how to use all the
Portland networked systems ... FidoNet, FoReM-Net, Citadel and UUCP are the
major ones.
88Mar13 1:56 am from edrury @ 3cpu.pdx
Well of course. The Net 105 sysops are meeting on how to butt in on every
network out there. The same people who say any sysop who doesn't charge
an access fee to their system is irresponsible. I hope they leave Citadel
Networks out of their little plans! This is exactly the kind of mentality
which will bring regulation down on the Networks. I have even heard from
these people that we should ALL pay business rates for our phone lines.
I don't know what happened to people who run systems for the fun of it,
but there sure are a lot of people who want to take all the fun out of it
and make it too expensive to do as anything but a business.
Don't get me wrong. I think a gateway is an admirable hack. But it is not
the code to do the gate which I find offensive. It is the attitude that we
must turn all the networks into one giant clone of Fido-Net, which frankly
has become one big political monster. A local Forem system which I will
not name as gone this route. Now there are practically *no* local messages
on it. I suspect a lot of the users are too intimidated to post anything
when the entire message base (All the message bases) are full of postings
from professional developers, consultants and vendors from all over the
US.
With all the gateways, there is no real community of users. The nets
become a melting pot --yes-- but the community spirit is so defused
as to become strickly a technical and redundant group of dispassionate
nerds talking about this interupt and that vector.
The party just gets too big for more 'folksy' type of people --
my kind of people. Then where will we meet each other? In conference
halls wearing name pins and three piece suits? Oh boy,
I can do that all expenses paid by my employer -- FOR WORK.
The bulletin boarding of America has lost its local color......
------------Ed
88Mar13 10:29 am from vicord @ 3cpu.pdx
Ed I agree with you. It seems a lot of bbsing is turning into a big
colorless blob. I remember back when you called a new bbs it was an
adventure. Each bbs had its own color. We STadels must fight to kept out the
'yuppies.'
On another path if the phone companies find that your are
charging money for use of the phone lines they will charge you business
rates. Those bbs's are in a gray area that could cause the rest of us a lot
of problems. The bbs lines are to public. Don't think you are fooling the
phone companies. They is a local bbs here in Portland that has seven phone
lines going into one apartment. This system just went to a pay system. It
is only a matter on time before PNB wacks him. Then we all will hear stories
about the big bad phone company picking on a poor little bbs operator. He's
not compaining about cheaping PNB by running a business and not paying
business rates. Before you jump on me remember what he doesn't pay we pay.
88Mar14 1:41 pm from dalew @ 3cpu.pdx
Ed: On the current state of the -majority- of Net 105 I do agree with you.
I do not attend the monthly meetings that they hold. Many times I have
regretted even becoming a part of the local net. It definitely has it's
advantages and disadvantages and I'm beginning to think that locally the
latter out way the former. While I do have a Unix Gateway running, it really
has no contact with the rest of the net other than the other two nodes that
are testing the same softwre I have for that. I have my own newsfeed via
percival and pretty much do my own thing.
I've also found out that I seem to get accused of many things that I or
my system is NOT doing and even when it's proven that I or my system is
not at fault, the accuser won't admit it much less apologize for the
inacurate claims they have made.
Sure, I'm curious as to whether I can get my BBS to network with a
Citadel, but I'm not trying to bring all the networks there are into one
single one. That would be the LAST thing I would want in fact. Each net
has its own unique charms, characteristics, problems, and solutions
(sometimes!) and I wouldn't try to change that even if I could.
That's just my own view from a Fido-Net Sysop that doesn't subscribe to
the ways and directions of others in the net. I guess you could say that
I'm more that a bit of a rougue or outcast in Net 105 but so be it! I can
live with that as long as I can run my system as I want to such that it
doesn't harm anyone or upset the rest of the net (which it doesn't even
though some think so).
Sometimes I wonder if it isn't certain people that just want to control
everything they possibly can and they just can't stand an independant sort
of person doing similar things as they are... Well, that's my nickle's
(or maybe quarter's) worth for now. No flame on you is intended and I took
no offense at your message at all. In fact, I agree that what you say is
all too true in Fido-Net these days. I find the Citanet and Usenet more to
my liking each day...
8-Dale
88Mar14 11:10 pm from edrury @ 3cpu.pdx
dalew@3cpu.pdx ( a system dear to my heart :-)
I am glad you took no offense to my message. I didn't mean offense -- even
-- to some of the people I *know* are involved in teh very things I meant to
flame. I think they should wake up and smell the coffee, peer out between the
hemorroids and all that rot13. I know their intentions and hope to sink same.
Ed
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* WHAT ABOUT INNER SANCTUM?
* A discussion from Dream Park BBS, Sacramento
*/
(The following messages are excerpted from an ongoing discussion
at Dream Park BBS, a system running Inner Sanctum software. IS is
a non-networking system based on STadel 2.x that has been heavily
modified by Ganelius & Co. in the direction of Stonehenge software.
This discussion involves some users interested in networking.
The sysop of Dream Park is Cheech Wizard; the number is
US 916-638-4237.)
88Feb10 from Chas Warren
The SysOp of this board, and I, had an interesting discussion concerning
networking. The SysOp suggested that a universal standard be adopted for
networking purposes, as ASCII is a universal standard, that would cut across
the incompatibilty of Fido, Opus, Cit, Forem, etc.
I thought it was a great idea.
Comments?
88Feb11 from Cheech Wizard
I don't understand why a network standard hasn't already been developed.
Since IS development is turning into a group effort and being ported to
several machines, it seems that a network standard could be developed and
adapted to several machines.
88Feb11 from Jon Cline
Well what about who wrote the message, ect? Some bbs's have date, time,
from, group, bbs, subject, roomname (subboard) all kinds of things.. It
would be hard to make a standard..
88Feb11 from Chas Warren
Some BBS programs might pose a problem. But there could be default answrs,
provided by the _receiving_ BBS.
88Feb11 from BOUNTY BOB
A standard is a nice idea but there are just too many BBS formats out
already. The only way I see a standard is if one BBS program is ported over
to most all other types of computers. Forem already is for the ST and the PC,
i'm not sure if the PC has F-NET yet but that could be part of a standard.
OPUS will be ported to the ST. Who knows.
88Feb11 from Chas Warren
Opus will be ported to the ST? Where did that nifo come from? I hope that
it is accurate, as I like Opus a great deal...
88Feb12 from BOUNTY BOB
oops, I don't know what I was typing, I meant to say, IF Opus would be ported
to the ST.
88Feb14 from Chas Warren
Cheech: regarding the universal networking standard, I talked with Don
Menefee, and he informs me that Fido _is_ such a standard. It is just up to
the various BBS authors to use it.
88Feb15 from Cheech Wizard
I suspect that IBM users would be disposed toward that. Is F-NET and FIDO
net the same? What machines use FIDO NET besides IBM boards?
88Feb15 from Chas Warren
No, I don't believe that F-NET and Fido are the same protocol.
88Feb15 from Cheech Wizard
Then name what computer besides IBM and clones that uses FIDO networking.
88Feb16 from Chas Warren
I think all of the CP/M machines use Fido.
The point is, the Fido network is already vast, and it works. Why reinvent
when it is easier just to follow an existing standard?
88Feb16 from BOUNTY BOB
Doesn't the Mac also use Fido or Opus?
88Feb16 from Cheech Wizard
The IS development team does not intend to re-invent the wheel. Ganelius is
leaning heavily toward Stonehenge network. He is very familiar with the
features of it and Stonehenge is a very popular BBS program in the Pacific
Northwest.
88Feb16 from Chas Warren
Stonehenge... I've never heard of it. Is it Fido compatible?
88Feb16 from Scott Trep
Onion Fields tried Stonehenge once... And it crashed constantly.
88Feb17 from March Hare
Has Inner Sanctum been written for any other type of computer besides the ST?
88Feb17 from Cheech Wizard
StoneHenge is a derivative of Citadel 86 and CItadel CPM. It has halls and
groups similar to IS. As far as I know, it's NOT Fido-compatable.
IS has not yet been ported over to any other machines, but the development
team is supposedly geared toward trasnlations to the Amiga, IBM, and
Macintosh.
Chas, I wish you would tell us what makes FIDO-net so a-friggin-amazing.
88Feb17 from Chas Warren
What makes Fido so amazing? How about the largest network in the world?
Logon to NightLine BBS, and you will see its awsome dimensions. 362-0715.
Fido has special feeds covering, literally, thousands of topics. Nighline
alone carries fifty different feeds. Fido was written for the PC's, and
there are, conservatively, 13 million PC users. Fido is THE most established
network protocol, with millions of messges left on the net each year.
Anything else?
88Feb17 from Cheech Wizard
Are you proposing I maintain a 50MB message base with entries made primarily
by IBM users?
88Feb19 from Chas Warren
I wasn't proposing anything. I was just answering your question regarding
Fido. If you think that Fido is only used by IBM users, then call NASA and
read the messages in the Atari_ST section... you will see that there are
probably as many ST users on Fido networks as there are ST users on Forem
networks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* YET ANOTHER AMIGA CITADEL?
* A note from the STadel net.gossip room
*/
88Mar10 10:06 pm from Cole Calistra @ The Guild
Hello all you Citadelites out there!
What is the file name and room on Sinkhole Utopia of the current STadel? I
am working on modifiying the current Amiga Cit to support it's features.. I
and the Sysop here (Dave Wright) are currently working on making Cit
look more like a (Pardon the expression) REAL BBS.. I like Cit personally,
but some of the point and click type people in RI have expressed harsh
feelings toward Cit, specially since they know nil, and don't want to have to
do any brain work to get msgs.. etc... We intend to add in a pause b/n
messages, like in Pcboard, BBS-PC!, etc... And make the Amiga net at any
time, like STadel, (Of course we NEED FLOORS!).. Oh BTW, I meant the current
STadel source code, IE. Which room, and EXACT file name... Also, anyone with
the newest IBM version source would be nice also, since Jay seems to have
given up the Cit business (Unless he intends to REALLY suprise us all and
come out with his own source code, [not just the IBM source with the second
System SPec file changed to the Amiga stuf])....
Well!!!!... Thanks!
-Cole Calistra-
(Editor's note: STadel has a "pause between messages" implemented via
the .Read More command, which the sysop may choose to define as the default
for new users.)
/*
* "PHTHTHBLLLTT!"...
* (We just couldn't resist)
*/
88Mar22 2:55 pm from Eliminator @ Secret_Edm
Hey guys! Here's a news flash that just came off the wire!:
NEW VERSION OF FOREM BBS SOFTWARE ARRIVES IN EDMONTON
-----------------------------------------------------
A new release of FoReM ST arrived yesterday. Among the new features is
yet another new file transfer protocol, 'ZZZMODEM'. This new protocol
transfers data in blocks of 16 Megabytes, giving it the largest block size of
any file transfer protocol in the known Universe. The checksum for each
block in a ZZZMODEM transfer is sent via XMODEM, for greater accuracy.
"This new protocol will allow us to transfer data at rates up to one
one-hundredth of one percent FASTER than by any previous method," explained
Phil "Compu" Dweeb, a FoReM afficionado, pausing occasionally to wipe the
drool from his chin.
Industry insiders were quick to point out that using ZZZMODEM, it takes
roughly 2 hours and 25 minutes to transfer a 20K file at 19,200 baud. Mr.
Dweeb said that this problem has been dealt with. "Each block is padded with
nulls, which take no time to send," he explained.
The new version of FoReM ST also has the new "Recursive
ARCing" feature. As Mr. Dweeb explains: "All download files are
recursively ARCed by FoReM before being put online. Our experience has shown
that when you ARC a file, it gets smaller. Therefore, the approach we
have taken is to repeatedly ARC the file until it reaches a size of
roughly 10K. At that point, it's hardly worth the trouble, wouldn't
you say?"
Reportedly in the works for a future release is the patented "One Length
Encoding" process. Early reports suggest that this procedure can reduce the
length of a file to just 1 bit. Mr. Dweeb takes up the story:
"One day we were sitting around doing some hacken and phreaken, and one
of us started thinking. All binary data is encoded into bits, which are
represented by ones and zeros. This is because a wire can either carry a
current or not, and wires can therefore be set up in a a series that can
represent strings of ones and zeros.
"Notice, however, that the real information is carried in the ones,
since the others carry no current. I mean, what good does a wire do when it
isn't carrying any current? So by dropping all the zeros, you can easily cut
file sizes in half. So we decided that a cool way to speed up data transfer
would be to only send the one bits. The results were phenomenal -- an
average speed increase of 50%!!
"After we finished the initial implementation, we kept finding ways to
make the thing faster, and more efficient. But then we realised that we
hadn't gone all the way. If you think about it, after you drop all the
zeros, you're left with a string of ones. Simply count up all the ones, and
you're left with another binary string. Say you end up with 7541 ones. In
binary, that's 1110101110101. So immediately we've reduced the number of
bits from 7541 to 13. But by simply repeating the process, we can reduce
it further. 1110101110101 becomes 111111111, or 9, which is 1001,
which becomes 2, which is 10, or 1. Once we reach a string length of 1, we
have reached maximum file compression. We now have the capability to encode
virtually unlimited amounts of information into a single digit!
Long-distance bills will never be the same!
"Now, that's not to say that there aren't a few problems. The biggest
one we have encountered is that for some reason, there seems to be a certain
amount of data loss during the conversion process. It seems that sometimes
the file cannot be expanded into its original form. So, the solution we came
up with was to have an encryption key associated with each file. When a One
Length Encoded file is received and is undergoing decompression, the unique
encryption key must be supplied. That way, we end up with a 100% success
rate in our conversions!
"A problem which we are having difficulty resolving lies in the fact
that to ensure a 100% success rate, the encryption key must be exactly as
long as the original file. We are confident, however, that the use of our
Recursive ARCing procedure will help to solve this problem..."
Well, there you have it, folks. Those FoReM guys never cease to amaze,
bringing the ST community the latest word in powerful, useful, user-friendly
BBS software.
=====================================================================
(c) 1988 by Adrian Ashley (Eliminator @ Secret_Edm CA 403 467 8829)
Permission is hereby granted to wave this in the face of the first
FoReM sysop you find and go "Phththbllltt!"...
=====================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*
* PARTING SHOTS
*/
Your humble departing editor has several items stashed in the computer
at work, but has not gotten around to retrieving them, so they'll have
to wait until CitaNews's big May issue (which Dave Quick is even now
assembling.)
Have a nice month.
[END OF FILE]