     Volume 6, Number 18                                    1 May 1989
     +---------------------------------------------------------------+
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     |        - FidoNews -                           (_|  /_)        |
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     |                                                     (jm)      |
     +---------------------------------------------------------------+
     Editor in Chief:                                  Vince Perriello
     Editors Emeritii:                                     Dale Lovell
                                                        Thom Henderson
     Chief Procrastinator Emeritus:                       Tom Jennings
     Contributing Editors:                                   Al Arango
     
     FidoNews  is  published  weekly  by  the  International   FidoNet
     Association  as  its  official newsletter.  You are encouraged to
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                        Table of Contents
     1. ARTICLES  .................................................  1
        386 Memory Manager - a Quick Look  ........................  1
        Counter-Propaganda for Mr. Witherspoon  ...................  4
        Universal Mayhem Update  ..................................  6
     2. COLUMNS  .................................................. 15
        The Veterinarian's Corner: Fleas!  ........................ 15
        Notes From Bureaucracy South (Part 2)  .................... 17
        A Public Service Announcement  ............................ 19
     3. LATEST VERSIONS  .......................................... 20
        Latest Software Versions  ................................. 20
     And more!
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 1                    1 May 1989


     =================================================================
                                 ARTICLES
     =================================================================

     Bill Bolton
     3:711/403

                       386MAX Memory Manager
                A BBS Application Oriented Product Peek

     I was  after  a  way  to get more Transient Program Area on the 386
     server on the  Software  Tools  BBS LAN that supports 3:711/403 and
     3:3/113.  There are  maintenance  tasks  that run on the server and
     some of them are quite memory hungry.  I have been using a plethora
     of small utilities to shadow ROMs and squeeze the maximum grunt out
     of the 386 but felt that there  had  to be more that could be done.
     I'd seen the ads from Qualitas for a  utility  called "386MAX" that
     promised to do some wonderful things with 386 memory management, so
     I decided to buy a copy and have a look at it.

     386MAX allows you to fill the empty memory spaces between  the ROMs
     above 640K with memory that can be used for a variety  of purposes.
     It  automatically moves any BIOS or EGA ROMS into fast RAM in  this
     area and then makes the rest available for whatever use you can put
     it  too.   This area between 640K (A0000 hex) and 1M (10000 hex) is
     termed "high memory" by 386MAX.

     I found  I  was  able  to load the Lantastic REDIR program into the
     high memory, along with OPUSCOMM, SHARE and FASTOPEN...  increasing
     my TPA in low  memory  from 450K to 486K.  It looks as though other
     TSRs could also be loaded  up  there.  The 386MAX documentation has
     some advice about what you should  and shouldn't attempt to load in
     high memory.

     386MAX uses F0000 to 100000 for showing  the BIOS ROMs etc and with
     my  EGA,  Perstor  and  Lantastic card installed at  their  default
     locations, the high memory area was split into three chunks of 16K,
     48K and 64K.  It turned out that this was  less  than  optimum  for
     loading some of the things I wanted to get into high memory.

     A  quick  look  at  the Lantastic documentation showed that I could
     readdress  the  Lantastic card memory space, so I moved it from the
     default  of D8000 to E8000 (so it sits right under the shadowed ROM
     area)  and  this gave me a 112K contiguous area of high memory that
     allowed me to load all the things I wanted.

     The batch  files  that  load  to  the network had to be modified to
     indicate to the  LANBIOS  where the LAN card was addressed but that
     was a few moments  work with an editor.  386MAX also had to be told
     that the Lantastic card was  using the space from E8000 to F0000 by
     using a "RAM=E800-F000" statement on its command line.

     I found that some programs seem  to  need quite a bit of free space
     in high memory to load, even though  they  don't actually use a lot
     of space once loaded.  FASTOPEN, for instance,  only occupies about
     9K when loaded with a generous amount of buffer  space,  but  would
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 2                    1 May 1989


     not load at all into high memory when the largest  contiguous chunk
     was  only  64K.   When I increased that to 112K I  had  no  problem
     loading FASTOPEN.

     386MAX  can give a number of useful displays of memory utilisation.
     Unfortunately most  of  them  cannot  be reproduced in Fidonews.  I
     have modified several  to  get  a  reasonable  approximation of the
     information  displayed  on  the    screen,   though  in  each  case
     information  had  to  be  deleted    in   order  to  meet  Fidonews
     presentation requirements.

     Figure  1  is part of the overall system memory assignment display,
     the nice graphic part on the top had to be chopped....

     Extended memory usage...
       ROM mapping region    =    80 KB, C000-C400, F000-10000
       Program storage       =    88 KB
       EMS memory            =     0 KB
       Remaining ext memory  =   872 KB
       High DOS memory       =   128 KB, C400-C800, CC00-E800
       Low  DOS memory       =     0 KB
     Total extended memory   =  1168 KB, shadow RAM recovered = 144KB
     Total expanded memory   =     0 KB, in use = 0 KB,
                                         available = 0 KB
     ==> Loading programs in LOW memory...
     ==>  88 KB available in HIGH memory, largest block is  75 KB.
     The current state is ON.

                            FIGURE 1.

     The Figure 2 shows how the memory area from 0K to 1M is utilised...

      386MAX   -- Version 4.04 -- A Memory Manager for 386 Systems
         (C) Copyright 1987-8 Qualitas, Inc.  All rights reserved.
            +---------------------------------------------+
            |       MEMORY MAP for RESIDENT PROGRAMS      |
            +--------------+------+------+------+---------+
            |              | Hex  | Hex  | Hex  | Decimal |
            | Name         | Start| End  | Owner|  Length |
            +--------------+------+------+------+---------+
            | DOS & drvrs  | 09B2 | 149B |      |  44,672 |
            |              |      |      |      |         |
            |              |      |      |      |         |
            | COMMAND.COM  | 149B | 156F | 149C |   3,376 |
            |              | 156F | 1573 | -Avl-|      48 |
            | COMMAND.COM  | 1573 | 16EB | 149C |   6,000 |
            | FASTOPEN.EXE | 16EB | 16F8 | CC01 |     192 |
            |              | 16F8 | 1717 | -Cur-|     480 |
            |              | 1717 | 1718 | -Avl-|       0 |
            | 386MAX.COM   | 1718 | 1777 | 1719 |   1,504 |
            | SERVER.EXE   | 1777 | 2614 | 1778 |  59,840 |
            |              | 2614 | 2633 | -Avl-|     480 |
            |              | 2633 | 2664 | 2634 |     768 |
            |              | 2664 | A000 | -Cur-| 498,096 |
            +-High DOS Mem-+------+------+------+---------+
            | Dev=QMMXXXX0 | C400 | C4D2 | C401 |   3,344 |
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 3                    1 May 1989


            | Dev=386MAX$$ |      |      |      |         |
            |              | C4D2 | C7FF | -Avl-|  12,992 |
            +- RAM or ROM -+ C7FF | CC00 | 0AA6 |  16,384 |
            | FASTOPEN.EXE | CC00 | CE39 | CC01 |   9,088 |
            | SHARE.EXE    | CE39 | CF72 | CE3A |   4,992 |
            | REDIR.EXE    | CF72 | D233 | CF73 |  11,264 |
            | OPUSCOMM.COM | D233 | D544 | D234 |  12,544 |
            |              | D544 | E800 | -Avl-|  76,720 |
            +--------------+------+------+------+---------+

                              FIGURE 2.

     Figure 3  shows another handy function which indicates the relative
     speeds of the various memory components in your system.....

      386MAX   -- Version 4.04 -- A Memory Manager for 386 Systems
        (C) Copyright 1987-8 Qualitas, Inc.  All rights reserved.
      +-------------------------------------------------------------+
      |     Timing memory accesses, please wait a moment...         |
      +-------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                  MEMORY ACCESS TIMES                        |
      +----------+-------------+--------+---------+-----------------+
      | Starting |   Range     |        | Average | Ratio to Fastest|
      | Address  | Start   End | Length | Time  s | (1.0 = fastest) |
      +----------+------+------+--------+---------+-----------------+
      | 00000000 |    0 |  640 |   640  |    494  |  1.0 *          |
      | 000A0000 |  640 |  736 |    96  |   5039  | 10.2 **********>|
      | 000B8000 |  736 |  768 |    32  |   8413  | 17.0 **********>|
      | 000C0000 |  768 |  800 |    32  |    494  |  1.0 *          |
      | 000C8000 |  800 |  816 |    16  |   5039  | 10.2 **********>|
      | 000CC000 |  816 |  928 |   112  |    494  |  1.0 *          |
      | 000E8000 |  928 |  960 |    32  |   5039  | 10.2 **********>|
      | 000F0000 |  960 | 1896 |   936  |    494  |  1.0 *          |
      | 001DA000 | 1896 | 2104 |   208  |         |      Absent     |
      | 0020E000 | 2104 | 2192 |    88  |    494  |  1.0 *          |
      +----------+------+------+--------+---------+-----------------+

                               FIGURE 3.

     386MAX can do a lot of  other  tricks with extended memory in a 386
     PC, including making it look like EMS  memory.  I don't have a need
     for most of it's other facilities for my  BBS LAN applications so I
     haven't investigated them thoroughly, though they all seem to  work
     well in a brief test.

     The  "high  memory" capability alone has made 386MAX a very  useful
     tool for me and it is certainly worth a look for anyone using a 386
     PC.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 4                    1 May 1989


     Daniel Tobias
     1:380/2

        I'm not sure if political propaganda is a particularly
     appropriate topic for FidoNews (TJ himself got flamed quite
     a bit for his foray in that area last year), but since
     Claude F. Witherspoon started it...

        In FidoNews 609, Mr. Witherspoon, of node 1:288/525,
     reprinted an allegorical tale lifted (I'm not sure with or
     without copyright permission) from Reader's Digest,
     paralleling the collapse of Chinese civilization under heavy
     opium use, to a predicted collapse of American civilization
     due to the present illegal drug culture.

        Such "moral" stories always oversimplify facts for the
     purpose of propaganda.  I'm sure the causes of the decline
     in China were many and varied, and it's possible the
     widespread drug use was more a symptom of the society's
     decadence than the direct cause of its fall.  But I'm no
     history student, so I won't claim to know the answers there.

        But I do object to the attempt by conservatives to claim
     that the fabric of society will be damaged beyond repair if
     people are allowed to freely pursue "immoral" lifestyles.
     Whether the subject be sex, drugs, or rock-and-roll, the
     forces of social repression are always agitating for
     restrictions on individual liberty in the name of preserving
     civilization against decadence.

        My position, however, is that one of the most important
     parts of American civilization is its general tradition of
     personal freedom, social tolerance, and individualism.  If
     these are trampled on in the name of "morality", more will
     be lost than gained.

        Drugs can cause much harm to their users.  Cocaine,
     heroin, and nicotine are all addictive and harmful to the
     health, and people would be best off staying away from them
     altogether.  Alcohol and marijuana might perhaps be safely
     used in moderation, but can be abused with harmful effects
     to the user (and to others if the user drives under the
     influence), so shouldn't be regarded as "harmless."  I
     myself don't make regular use of any of these substances.

        Yet, the "war on drugs" causes even more harm than the
     drugs themselves.  It doesn't stop users from getting their
     drugs, but it does create a great crime problem surrounding
     the distribution of drugs and their artificially-high cost
     which leads users to steal to pay for their next fix.  (When
     is the last time you saw somebody commit burglary to support
     his cigarette smoking habit?)

        Various hysterical measures now being practiced or
     proposed in the name of the "war on drugs" are harmful to
     the Constitutional principles of this country.  For
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 5                    1 May 1989


     instance, cars, boats, and planes are being seized without
     due process of law if minute quantities of pot are found.
     Drug agents ruthlessly ransack houses of anyone suspected of
     involvement in drugs, and often innocent people get
     victimized in error.  Increasing invasions of personal
     privacy are becoming commonplace.

        The correct solution is not repression, but education.
     Teach people of the true effects of various substances, and
     most will choose to stay away from the harmful ones.  Those
     who still use drugs will be making an informed choice to
     trade off the possibility of health damage for what they
     regard as a pleasurable activity, which should be their
     right in a free society.  They should fully bear the costs
     and risks of their choice, as does somebody who chooses to
     eat unhealthy foods or engage in risky activities like
     skiing or skydiving.  You are the self-owner of your own
     body, and it is your right and responsibility to decide what
     substances get placed in it.

        The war on drugs is a war against liberty.  We should
     return to the system that prevailed in the nineteenth
     century, when all drugs were legal; incidentally, that was a
     time of unprecedented economic growth in this country,
     disproving the implication of Witherspoon's story that
     allowing drug use will inevitably cause the decay of a
     civilization.  Support free enterprise: re-legalize drugs!

        Questions, comments, and constructive criticism can be
     sent to me at 1:380/2.  Ad-hominem attacks ("...I hope some
     druggie runs over you and your mother and all you commies go
     to hell for your idiotic beliefs...")  can be sent to
     /dev/nul on UNIX machines, or NUL: on MS-DOS machines.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 6                    1 May 1989


                                 Fredric L. Rice
                              (103/503.3 Astro-Net)
                                 (714) 662-2294

     - The abandoned Part 1:

     Hundreds of light years from the nearest planet or star a small,
     cylindrical craft slices its' way through the void, searching
     for landfall. Its' only companion for these last seven years has
     been the hyperspace radio link; a talkative companion who has
     offered a certain measure of comfort on such a long journey as
     this; orders which tell it where to turn and which speeds and
     cross trajectories to perform in its endless search.

     Reporting failures to locate habitable planets has caused the
     remote robot sensor to wonder if it has been forgotten by those
     God-like creatures who created it. A quick nanosecond of panic
     scurries its' way through the remotes' circuitry at this unworthy
     numerical thought and it faithfully continues its search.


     - Battleship SCOR:

     CAPTAIN MALCON OF the battleship SCOR recording, 881128.20.

     "I am uneasy at the recent alliance with SANO and BONP. I know
     that Central High Command feels such an alliance is in the best
     interest of the Republic but still, I have heard certain rumors,
     and attack swarm four, commanded by my brother Divad, hasn't
     reported in last shift. Attempts to gain radio contact have met
     with failure and I must assume the swarm destroyed. No mayday
     was received so perhaps they have met with equipment failure.

     "Meanwhile, SANO and BONP are scheduled to be on patrol along
     the Optemerder arm of the Galaxy, watching for intrusions into
     the Republic, allowing SCOR time to refit and rebuild after our
     encounter with TRIL.

     "Still I am uneasy. SANO's Captain Marker is a clever one and I
     would be hard pressed to fight well against him. BONP's Captain
     I don't know but have heard he is ruthless and isn't adverse to
     buying biological weapons from pirates and using them against
     his enemies.

     "They are too strong and I don't trust them."

     "Meanwhile, we are still making slow progress to our repair
     station and expect to make landfall within two months.

     "Captain Malcon etc... etc..."

     ---

     The old and war-scarred battleship SCOR was heavily damaged and
     leaking air as it made its way to spacedock. Many of the crew
     had been killed this time out and many were still in critical
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 7                    1 May 1989


     condition down in sick bay. The survivors of the fight were in
     low spirits and there had been talk of mutiny. The instigators
     had been ferreted out and vacuumed as a televised event on all
     ships channels to serve as a reminder to any dissenters of the
     captains authority.
     The bridge was a wreck. Fluid state components smashed by the
     many concussions were leaking and dripping from consoles to
     the floor. Whole control stations had been ripped from the
     flooring braces when the deck plates had buckled upwards and the
     bridge had a slight slant which made the bridge crew
     uncomfortable.

     The air scrubbers had been damaged early in the fight and a
     thick blanket of smoke still hung overhead. Many sections of the
     ship had caught fire when the volatile antimatter intermix
     chambers coolant containment vessels had ruptured, and the fire
     control chief was unable to contain the fires. In a desperate
     measure to stop the fires, three entire decks had been
     vacuumed, killing the fire, and the majority of the crew.

     Some had to die.

     "Here's the casualty list, sir, and a list of religious
     affiliations. More than eighteen hundred missing."

     Captain Malcon took the list from the sick bay officer and shook
     his head, "More than half of the casualties want to be buried
     in the ships' antimatter compressors. 'Can't do that until we
     get them back on line, of course. Put them on ice and ask
     planetary command if we can bury the rest here."

     "Aye, sir". The sick bay officer turned on her heal and left,
     her feet crunching on carbonized plastics. It's hard to memorize
     all the names, Malcon thought. So many of them die so hard and
     so fast, I can't keep up with them.

     Captain Malcon stepped over his dead steward and nearly fell
     when his foot slipped out from under him. Grabbing onto the bent
     arm of his command chair, he looked down to see the blood that
     was still spreading, noting the contrast of the red against the
     black, and wondering at the perfect red foot print he had made.

     The intercom controls on the chair had been smashed. "Ensign,
     get someone up here to clear away the bodies. I want this bridge
     to be cleared as soon as Johnson finishes up with engineering.

     The ensign, who had been called to the bridge to take over for
     an injured pilot, strode down hill to the workman access hatch
     and slid down the ladder to the decks below to carry out his
     orders.

     Malcon sat down in his chair and pressed against the arm, trying
     to push it out to keep it from pressing against his side. The
     steward had been thrown into it early in the battle and had bent
     the arm badly. Finally giving up, Malcon looked around his
     bridge.
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 8                    1 May 1989


     The air was running out and with the antimatter engines still
     out, would not be replaceable. All ships systems which were
     absolutely required were operating in low-power modes which made
     the ship uncomfortably cold. If many of the crew members had
     survived, the accumulative body heat would have made the ship
     very hot. Captain Malcon wondered if his ship would survive
     another two months to landfall.

     ---

     The Vultures:

     Not far away, two battle ships lay, watching the bent and broken
     SCOR limp away. SANO and BONP sat outside of SCORs' remaining
     sensor range and held a discussion:

     BONP: "I tell you, we attack now! While they are at their
       weakest! In a few more hours they may be able to regain some
       of their armament capability!"

     SANO: "Steve, wait a minute. Let's see if they are able to make
        it to landfall first. If they don't, that fool ship TRIL will
        have done our work for us."

     BONP: "And if they do make landfall? What then? They will
        rebuild and find the people who hired TRIL! Are you so sure
        we won't be found out! Of course we will; I say attack now
        and finish them!"

     Captain Marker of the Republic battleship SANO sat back in his
     command chair and looked at the image of Captain Steve Baltine.
     Just for a moment, Marker had considered taking him out
     permanently. Though he thought he could easily defeat the BONP,
     it was entirely possible that Baltine had made alliances outside
     of the Republic. Such things had been known to happen and if it
     had happened once, it could easily happen again.

     SANO: "We wait. We wait and see if they make it. If they are
        still alive by the end of the solar month, we will move in
        but not until then."

     Marker hit the ship-to-ship on his command chair and noted the
     look on Baltines' face as the screen darkened. It was clear that
     Baltine had entertained similar thoughts he himself had been
     considering.

     "Lt. Maklin, bring our shields up to half power."

     "But sir, the SCOR will be able to pick us up if we do so, even
     with the shape their sensor array is in!"

     "I know that, Lt., but I don't thrust that Baltine. Better
     to have a crippled enemy know of our whereabouts than have a
     friend turn unfriendly."

     "Yes, sir. Defense screens at half power."
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 9                    1 May 1989


     The SANOs' bridge lights flickered briefly as the power was
     channeled from ships systems to the defense screens. Almost as
     soon as the screen were up, Lt. Maklin reported, "Sir,
     BONP has raised his shields to full power and is hailing us
     on ship-to-ship. He demands an explanation and swears he will
     destroy us. Shall I answer?"

     "No, Lt.", Marker switched visual tie-ins on the chairs'
     console, bringing up a split-screen of the broken ship, with
     its glittering trail of frozen air crystals, and the view of the
     BONP, the corona discharge of full shields menacing. "Let him
     listen to static for awhile."

     ---

     "Captain! Two reading!" Malcons' eyes snapped open and sat bolt
     upright in his chair. Engineering had come two hours ago and
     replaced it for him, vowing that they would do there best with
     the rest of the ship. "They're directly in our wake, sir, trying
     to hide in our gamma trail! One's considerable brighter than the
     other... Must be defense shielding!"

     Private Johnson brought the aft view up on the highest
     magnification possible. Captain Malcon jumped forward out of his
     chair and strode left to the navigators console. "Something
     shielded... I can compute the volume of the objects by the
     envelope against distance, sir. Strange, they didn't come up
     on us, just suddenly appeared."

     "They are following us, I can see that much. Anything yet on the
     identification, Johnson?"

     "Just a moment, sir," Johnson brought up one ship identification
     profile after another, using the computer to compare the distant
     readings against those stored in his computer. "It looks like
     both bogeys might be Republic battleships but I can't be sure
     with the way you've reprogrammed our arrays." Malcon let the
     comment pass. "Confirmed, sir, same class as us, no positive
     identification on the ships transponders."

     "Bring up hyperspace channels for ship-to-ship. Let's see what
     they're up to. Perhaps they can offer assistance though I
     wonder why they haven't done so so far. With both of them
     towing, we could make port within a week."

     Johnson reached under the console and pulled several levers
     upwards, raising the communications dias from the floor next to
     his console. Bending over it, he said, "The gigasponder it still
     missaligned, sir, no communications is possible."

     On the view screen, both objects hung in space, surrounded by a
     faint and hazy glow. The tactical computers had arbitrarily
     named the brighter of the objects as "Primary" and the dimmer as
     "Secondary". To the left side of the view screen, on a much
     smaller screen, was displayed the configuration of a Republic
     Battleship, a configuration Captain Malcon knew all too well.
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 10                   1 May 1989


     "How about sending protocol codes over ships running lights?"

     "I'll have to write that in, sir." Malcon watched with some
     amusement while Johnson quickly brought up the computers line
     editor and wrote several filters, a sorter, and compression
     algorithm, all within minutes. "Sending." Most navigators would
     have talked the program in as a request these days. Some of the
     academy graduates, though, were luck enough to be taught under
     the guidance of professor Cadens, who also taught history and
     stressed a little of the old ways. "No response, sir."

     The Captain was about to issue an order to keep trying when
     Johnson said, "Activity, sir!" Even as Captain Malcons' eyes
     went to the view screen, the radar return of the navigational
     fixes strengthened as the Primary ship moved towards them. The
     second ship on the viewer brightened as its shields were
     brought up to full power.

     ---

     "What's that fool doing!" Captain Marker exclaimed as he watched
     the BONP move towards the crippled SCOR. "Shields up! Full
     power, Maklin! Position ourselves between SCOR and BONP, keep
     our primary shields up at all cost! Brings us about at full
     speed and stay ready on those phasers!"

     As Maklin hammered out the commands on his navigation console,
     Captain Johnson struck the ship-to-ship on his command chair.
     Within seconds, Captain Baltine of the battleship BONP came on
     the view screen, "Why Captain... You finally choose to return
     my calls! What can I do for you?"

     "I can not allow you to come within identification range of
     SCOR! You idiot! There communications may be repaired soon and
     we'll be hunted down like dogs! I'll stop your if I must!"

     Captain Baltine simply smiled, "Captain, captain, captain... You
     are in no condition to stop a Salinian show cat from biting,
     much less stop me! Move aside or I shall split you in two!" With
     a slap to his command chair arm, the channel was closed.

     "Sir, we are directly between SCOR and BONP. BONP's speed and
     course has not altered! Collision in sixteen seconds." Captain
     Johnson considered. Should he allow the BONP to destroy SCOR and
     make a run from this sector, disavowing his involvement in case
     SCOR should somehow get a message off? His time was running out.
     He knew a collision with BONP would be equally as disastrous
     to both ships.

     "Stand here, Maklin, let's see if he's got the guts for it!"
     Johnson considered counting the seconds but looked around the
     bridge. Several engineers from the lower decks had stopped
     their repairs and were watching the swelling ship coming at
     them at near light speeds. A count down was pointless.

     As BONP came close, it veered off under them, merging the
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 11                   1 May 1989


     defense screens on the less shielded portions of SANO. On
     BONP, the heavily shielded command sections brushed against
     the SANO's shields. Aboard both ships death blossomed.

     ---

     "What in Aernaths' name are they doing!" Captain Malcon watched
     the near fatal collision of the two distant ships. "Get a man
     top side on those gigasponders! I want to know what's
     happening!"

     Johnson called down to engineering, "Get me ensign Sanders!" A
     few moments passed and "Sanders! Know how to align the
     gigasponders on this ship?"

     "Of course, sir!"

     "Get on it, right away!"

     "Now sir?" The fear was evident in the ensigns voice. He knew
     that with a battle taking place in this sector, his chances of
     survival were slim if he took a gamma bath.

     "That's an order, ensign. Now!" And Johnson switched off.

     Ensign Sanders ran to the environmental lockers and drew out a
     full suit, taking time to check its functioning and still get
     in as fast as possible. ''I must be nuts'', he thought to
     himself. ''Climb outside with a battle taking place just meters
     from our hull! I should hide, that's what I should do, hide in
     the mess stores until planet fall. Then catch a shuttle to some
     commerce planet!''

     Sanders grabbed the optical alignment tools he needed for the
     job, ''From there I could sign on as a food taster at some
     palace... Safer than this idiot nonsense!''

     Sanders stood in air lock 17 and cycled his air out. The deck
     turned under him and the outer door opened, allowing him to face
     the stars. His suit was tugged a little as the remaining air
     shot into vacuum, At this speed, none could be seen to move.
     "Awww, fuck it!", he said, and reached overhead and rolled out
     of the lock until he was standing on the outer hull.

     Looking over the command bubble extending a hundred meters
     before him, he swore, "What a mess! What an Aernath mess!" The
     bubble was bent and had melted along the entire length of the
     command section. Out over the drive clusters, he could see the
     thrust guides had been bent clear out of alignment. It was
     clear to Sanders that this ship would never space again.
     "If it gets us to dock", he said to himself.

     Walking around jagged holes in the hull, he made his way forward
     to the gigisponder network. Though badly bent, it could still
     be made operational if he could align it. He checked his
     intrasuit monitors and noticed the radiation count as he walked
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 12                   1 May 1989


     forward. As he crested the bubble, the count rose to hazard
     levels and Sanders cursed again. Looking up, he cursed again.

     Screaming towards the SCOR, SANO and BONP's death embrace was
     clearly visible and growing perceptible larger even as he
     watched. High energy phasers shot out and cut through the two
     ships, slicing off huge streamers of high energy particles
     like curls of shaven wood. Immediately after the phaser strike,
     the attacking ship would follow with damaging torpedoes which
     dug deep into the enemy ships hull. Both ships were trailing
     huge chunks of unidentifiable wreckage.

     SANO turned over the BONP and raked the command sections with
     a withering score of phasers, pressing in close to affect the
     maximum damage possible. Quickly following with a barrage of
     torpedoes, BONP had learned dearly of SANOs' tactics and used
     its tractors to pivot, bringing its forward shields to meet the
     torpedoes. As it did so, SANO loosed a torpedo which went
     unnoticed into the void, directly heading towards SCOR.

     ---

     Captain Johnson was slammed down against the deck, almost black-
     ing out under the force of the other ships collision. Though it
     lasted only seconds, Johnson saw it all in slow motion; the
     liquid state components spraying down under the control
     consoles; crewmem dropping as if there legs had been chopped
     out from under them; and above all the noise, the quickly
     silenced screams from several crushed crewmen who had been
     unlucky enough to be caught in the path of the view screen.

     As BONP passed underneath, Johnson propped himself up and
     quickly fell on his face. He sat up and took his right hand
     in his left and stuffed his crushed arm into his jumpers pocket.
     "Maklin! Maklin! Drop shields and channel full power to the
     tractor beam! Lock onto that ship and stop them cold!" Maklin
     took a few swipes at the blood flowing from his nose and
     colored his console as he punched up the commands. When the
     computer had been programmed, Maklin got on an intraship
     channel, "All hand, stand tight! Ready captain!"

     "Do it!" As the captain held onto the arms of his chair,
     Maklin slapped in a button and the lights brightened then
     dimmed within a flicker of an eye lash. Immediately after that,
     the SANO was again subjected to high gravities in a forward
     direction. Before them, BONP snapped to a standstill and
     swung back, almost without loosing speed. SANO snapped
     forward and again they met.

     ---

     On the outer hull of the SCOR, Sanders was running away from the
     onrushing torpedo, trying in a vain attempt to get back into the
     safety of the air lock. He didn't need to turn around to know
     that he had lost his race as he felt the ship buckle under him
     a whisper before he knew nothing but blackness.
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 13                   1 May 1989


     Within SCOR, emergency bulkheads slammed down all over the ship,
     causing it to ring unbearably throughout. In the forward armory,
     the outer hull pealed away and a half a million tons of torpedoes
     leaped towards space. They didn't go very far, however, before
     the whole room exploded. SCOR was in its death throws now and
     very few survived. On what was left of the bridge, Captain Malcon
     was slowly waking up. Around him he could see no one but him
     was alive. Lying on his side, he watched the shattered view
     screen as one of the battling objects broke away from the
     other and came towards him. ''It's BONP, by Aernath! BONP come
     to save us!'' On the view screen, BONP came in, some sections of
     it glowing red. Behind it, SANO pivoted on its side and came
     up behind the BONP, again locking tractors with it.

     Puzzlement was Malcons expression as he saw BONP fire the final
     torpedo that would finish him. Realization slowly dawned as the
     torpedo swelled in the view screen, quickly blotting out the
     picture of SANO and BONP locked in death struggle.

     Malcons arm buckled under him and he fell back onto his side.
     The fires raging behind him and the blood pooling underneath
     him went unnoticed as his eyes closed then slowly opened.

     His lips opened, cracking through the dried blood and a small
     river of blood poured down his cheek. "It's Mayhem", he
     whispered, and the darkness took him.

     - The abandoned Part 2:

     It had long since stopped wondering where its companion had
     gone. Out here in the wilderness of space, the remote robot
     sensor could hardly remember the hyperspace radio link which
     had vanished so long ago; it only knew that it longed for
     something it had once had.

     ---

     Universal Mayhem Version 1 will be released in a week or so. The
     problems which have been reported have been fixed and many
     updates have been made according to what has been suggested by
     the beta test sites.

     As usual, I will mail the program directly to your system when
     the time comes. If you are not on my distribution list and would
     like to receive Universal Mayhem, let me know.

     I have mailed a package to Israel containing Beta Version 1. I
     have also mailed two packages of 16 floppies to a couple of
     nodes in Australia. All three of these nodes have sent me the
     postage for the floppies and I must thank them. I don't know,
     however, if they received them because I failed to attach any
     kind of customs form to them. If you guys didn't receive them,
     let me know and I will take them directly to the post office
     in Los Angeles and get them properly conditioned for
     intra-country transport.

     FidoNews 6-18                Page 14                   1 May 1989


     Fredric L. Rice
     674 East Bridwell
     Glendora, California.
     91740

     By the way: If you are a ham radio operator and have the
     capability of getting packet into LADPX, (Los Angeles Duplex),
     try connecting to N6BGW-9 and leave me some mail! N6APD for
     now but looking forward to an upgrade soon.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 15                   1 May 1989


     =================================================================
                                  COLUMNS
     =================================================================

     The Veterinarian's Corner
     Excerpts from the ANIMED GroupMail Conference

     by Don Thomson, 1:102/1005

     Fleas!

     > Thought we had gotten rid of the problem, but are finding a few
     > [fleas.] Wife says they are coming from the yard. Have used a
     > flea spray from pet store, and diazanon, repeatedly, without
     > lasting success. Do not find the fleas in the house, seems like
     > they should be here?
     > [Orig Msg from Charles Holland on 02 Jan 89 12:21]

     That's one all too common problem, Charles.  This year
     especially, the flea season seem to have lasted longer than
     usual, well into December. If you are having a flea infestation
     problem, then I would recommend a couple of things:

     1) For the back yard alternate between diazanon and malathion at
     the dilutions stated on the back of the bottle. I generally
     recommend a repeat application every 3 weeks, usually as early in
     the morning as possible, while there is little wind and you can
     keep the animals in away from the spray.  As the problem is
     controlled, and as the weather cools, you may increase the
     interval between sprayings.

     Do not let your pets into the yard until well after the spray is
     dry.  Some pets, especially cats are sensitive to the effects of
     insecticide spays if absorbed through the skin or coat.  Making
     sure the ground is dry before letting them out will prevent this
     type of problem.

     2) If the problem is persistant in the winter months, I would
     worry that the fleas may have colonized your carpets and those
     favorite sleeping places of your pets. You will need to also have
     your indoors sprayed. ' I personally prefer a hand-held pump
     spray bottle that I can lightly ist 'high risk' areas like
     carpets, certain chairs, under beds, etc.  Indoor premise sprays
     specially formulated to be safe in indoor areas such as homes,
     even resteraunts....

     "Bombs" can be effective too, but because you have to leave the
     house for several hours, the spray is everywhere and the fact
     that your can't be sure the spray penetrated all areas, makes me
     prefer to use a hand held pump spray.

     With the hand spray, you can just do one room at a time, close
     the door to keep you pets out until dry. And dries completely in
     20 minutes. Takes about 3 minutes to spritz the room. Just like
     the yard spray, repeat every 3 weeks until the problem is
     controlled and then you can increase the interval between
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 16                   1 May 1989


     sprayings.

     3)  For your pet, I use either a powder or a spray meant for
     pets. I feel that Pyrethrin based sprays are easy, effective, and
     have a very rapid bio-degradability time period - about 6-8 hours
     after application on your pet.  Toxic reactions are extremely
     rare.

     DB Thomson, DVM
     1:102/1005
     9:871/16

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 17                   1 May 1989


     The following is the second in a series of four columns Fred Grosby
     (a federal government  employee, and a user on "The Falcon's Rock")
     has written.  He  deserves  all  the  credit  for  writing them.  I
     suggested that he upload them  to  my  system,  because  I  enjoyed
     reading them in our local Mensa  newsletter, Capital M.  I hope you
     enjoy reading them, too.  The archive  of all four is available for
     file request from 1:109/501 as BSOUTH.ZIP.

     Notes From Bureaucracy South (Part 2)
     By Fred Grosby, a user on 1:109/501

     It is the beginning of the month.   Budget  Briefing  time.   Panic
     time.

     Preparing the monthly Budget Briefing is one of the  most important
     things we do here at Bureaucracy South.  Actually, I don't know why
     They  call  it Budget Briefing, because it doesn't have anything to
     do with the budget.  It is really a program briefing.  What happens
     is that our  Deputy  Administrator  briefs the Administrator on the
     status of our Program  Indicators.    Now, you might think that the
     Administrator, or at least our  Deputy  Administrator, would decide
     what the Program Indicators are to be, right?  Not quite.  They are
     politicos, which means that they don't really  know  what we do, so
     we get to come up with our own  Program  Indicators.    This sounds
     like a pretty good deal, except that what we  come  up  with  never
     seems to be quite what They want.  We never  know  exactly  what is
     wrong  with it, only that They don't like it and we  will  have  to
     come  up  with  something  else.    It's sort of like being in  the
     organizational equivalent of  a singles bar:  the other person says
     "Tell me about yourself,"  and  you  know  that whatever you say is
     going to be grounds for  rejection.    No  matter  how hard we try,
     sooner or later we will get  the  dreaded  word:    They  want more
     charts.

     Ah yes, the charts.  Preparing material  for  the  Budget  Briefing
     involves taking raw data and portraying it in  chart  form.    They
     call this Analysis.  No, I am not kidding.   Those charts are taken
     very seriously around here.  Screw one up and you  will  hear about
     it.  You have to follow the rules, of which there are several:

     Make  sure  your  charts have lots of colors, the more the  better.
     They  are impressed by colors.  Remember, the goal is to achieve  a
     victory of style over substance.

     Some  types  of charts are better than other types.  Pie charts are
     the best;    exploded  pie  charts, with pieces pulled out from the
     rest of the pie, are extra good.  Bar charts are good, because They
     are used to bar  charts.    Line graphs are not good.  I don't know
     why, but They don't like  line  graphs.    I  suspect that They are
     confused by all those squiggly lines.  Don't even think about those
     fancy scatter plots or stuff like that.   One of my coworkers did a
     regression one time and they recoiled in fear.

     Don't call the regions, even if they have data that you need.  They
     might think that we are spying on them.   They  might object to our
     Program  Indicators.    They  might  actually  have  a  good  idea.
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 18                   1 May 1989


     Whatever you do, DON'T CALL THE REGIONS!!!

     Always get  your  data  from  the computer.  It is a basic tenet of
     life here at  Bureaucracy  South  that computers are perfect.  They
     never make mistakes.   Therefore,  if you can say that you got your
     data from the computer, it will never be questioned.

     Before we can do the  Program  Indicator  charts, we have to do The
     Download, were we transmit our very  raw data from the minicomputer
     in the computer room to the microcomputer  in  my  office.  Once we
     have it on the micro, the data is  appended,  replaced, sorted, and
     otherwise  masticated  into  output  suitable for being turned into
     charts.  This is where the panic comes in.  Remember, our computers
     are perfect.  They never make mistakes.  The fact that  the mini is
     an obsolete clunker with a mind of it's own does not matter.    The
     fact that  our  phone  connections  go  through the GSA centrex (!)
     doesn't matter.   The  fact  that nobody has checked to see whether
     the old update program  will  work  on  our brand-new micro doesn't
     matter.  Our computers are  perfect.    They  never  make mistakes.
     That's why we don't have to  worry about doing The Download until a
     couple of days before the charts are due.

     Well guess what.  Every month The  Download bombs out.  The reasons
     are several.  Lately, the mini has developed  the  nasty  habit  of
     refusing  to  download almost exactly half the data.   Anyway,  THe
     Download fails and the whole place goes into a blind  panic.    The
     clerks  who  do  The  Download  panic  because  they  fully  expect
     everything to  go  perfectly  and  have  no  idea  what  to do when
     something goes wrong.    One  of my co-workers, an otherwise lovely
     woman who I call  The Ultimate Bureaucrat, gets mad because without
     that raw data she will  miss her deadline for preparing the charts.
     The supervisors run around with harried  looks on their faces.  The
     two  people  who  are supposed to know  everything  about  how  The
     Download  works  run  for cover, because they actually  don't  know
     anything.   But for real world-class panic you would  have  to  see
     Fluffy.    Fluffy  is our Deputy Director, and it is  she  who  has
     overall responsibility for  the  Program  Indicator charts.  Fluffy
     does not handle adversity well.  The least little setback sends her
     into a fit.  When  the  Program Indicator charts are late, which is
     usually, she absolutely goes into orbit.

     Eventually, we always manage to persuade  the computers to yield up
     their data and the charts are prepared  and submitted, which leaves
     just  one final task before the monthly Budget  Briefing  cycle  is
     complete:  assessment of blame.  By definition, the  failure of The
     Download  cannot  be  blamed  on  the  computers.    Remember,  the
     computers are perfect.  They never make mistakes.  The problem must
     have been caused  by  some  dumb human.  Fingers must be pointed at
     the person who caused  the  failure of The Download.  Names must be
     called.  Bucks must be  passed.    Only  then  can  calm  return to
     Bureaucracy South.  Until next month.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 19                   1 May 1989


                     A Public Service Announcement
                Proper and Conscientious Use of ARCmail

     Although my system is ARCmail capable, I receive an amazing
     amount of mail from systems with whom I have never made
     contact that arrives in ARCmail form.  Sure, my system can
     handle it.  So why am I complaining?

          1)  ARCmail capability is NOT a requirement to have a
          node address.

          2)  Many systems in the network are not currently ARCmail
          capable.  Generally, these are mailers that work on
          platforms other than the IBM PC and compatibles.

     When sending NetMail to another system in the network with
     whom you have NOT previously had contact, DO NOT SEND ARCMAIL.
     If that mail happens to be sent to a system that is not
     ARCmail capable, the system will not be able to unpack your
     mail.

     ARCmail should only be used on links with whom you have
     established ARCmail capability.  In other words, unless you
     have verified in advance that a particular system is ARCmail
     capable, then you should NEVER send ARCmail to that system.


     In summary, the sending of ARCmail should NEVER be considered
     the default.  Send ARCmail only to systems that you have
     verified as ARCmail capable.

     NOTE:  This warning should apply equally to other archived
     mail forms that are making their way into common use:
     ZOOmail, ZIPmail, PAKmail, LHARCmail, and whatever other type
     of archived mail might be released tomorrow.

     A message brought to you by your local FidoNet watchdog.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 20                   1 May 1989


     =================================================================
                              LATEST VERSIONS
     =================================================================

                          Latest Software Versions

                           Bulletin Board Software
     Name        Version    Name        Version    Name       Version

     Fido            12k    Opus          1.03b    TBBS           2.1
     QuickBBS       2.03    TPBoard         5.0    TComm/TCommNet 3.4
     Lynx           1.30*   Phoenix         1.3    RBBS         17.1D


     Network                Node List              Other
     Mailers     Version    Utilities   Version    Utilities  Version

     Dutchie       2.90C*   EditNL         4.00    ARC           6.01
     SEAdog         4.50    MakeNL         2.12    ARCmail        2.0
     BinkleyTerm    2.20*   Prune          1.40    ConfMail      4.00
     D'Bridge       1.18*   XlatList       2.90    TPB Editor    1.21
     FrontDoor       2.0    XlaxNode       2.32    TCOMMail       2.2*
     PRENM          1.40    XlaxDiff       2.32    TMail         8901
                            ParseList      1.30    UFGATE        1.03
                                                   GROUP         2.07*
                                                   EMM           1.40
                                                   MSGED         1.99
                                                   XRS            2.0*

     * Recently changed

     Utility authors:  Please help  keep  this  list  up  to  date  by
     reporting  new  versions  to 1:1/1.  It is not our intent to list
     all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 21                   1 May 1989


     =================================================================
                                  NOTICES
     =================================================================

                          The Interrupt Stack


      8 May 1989
        Digital Equipment Corporations User Society (DECUS) will be
        holding its semi-annual symposium in Atlanta, GA. Runs
        through May 12. As usual sysop's will get together and chat.

     15 May 1989
        Denmark changes telephone numbers from 7 to 8 digits.

     19 May 1989
        Start of EuroCon III at Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Contact
        Hans Ligthelm of 2:500/3 for details.

      5 Jun 1989
        David Dodell's 32nd Birthday

     24 Aug 1989
        Voyager 2 passes Neptune.

     24 Aug 1989
        FidoCon '89 starts at the Holiday Inn in San Jose,
        California.  Trade show, seminars, etc. Contact 1/89
        for info.

      5 Oct 1989
        20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"

     11 Nov 1989
        A new area code forms in northern Illinois at 12:01 am.
        Chicago proper will remain area code 312; suburban areas
        formerly served with that code will become area code 708.

     If you have something which you would like to see on this
     calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     FidoNews 6-18                Page 22                   1 May 1989


            OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION

     Mort Sternheim 1:321/109  Chairman of the Board
     Bob Rudolph    1:261/628  President
     Matt Whelan    3:3/1      Vice President
     Bill Bolton    3:711/403  Vice President-Technical Coordinator
     Linda Grennan  1:147/1    Secretary
     Kris Veitch    1:147/30   Treasurer


            IFNA COMMITTEE AND BOARD CHAIRS

     Administration and Finance     Mark Grennan    1:147/1
     Board of Directors             Mort Sternheim  1:321/109
     Bylaws                         Don Daniels     1:107/210
     Ethics                         Vic Hill        1:147/4
     Executive Committee            Bob Rudolph     1:261/628
     International Affairs          Rob Gonsalves   2:500/1
     Membership Services            David Drexler   1:147/1
     Nominations & Elections        David Melnick   1:107/233
     Public Affairs                 David Drexler   1:147/1
     Publications                   Rick Siegel     1:107/27
     Security & Individual Rights   Jim Cannell     1:143/21
     Technical Standards            Rick Moore      1:115/333


                      IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

         DIVISION                               AT-LARGE

     10  Courtney Harris   1:102/732    Don Daniels     1:107/210
     11  Bill Allbritten   1:11/301     Mort Sternheim  1:321/109
     12  Bill Bolton       3:711/403    Mark Grennan    1:147/1
     13  Irene Henderson   1:107/9       (vacant)
     14  Ken Kaplan        1:100/22     Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5
     15  Scott Miller      1:128/12     Matt Whelan     3:3/1
     16  Ivan Schaffel     1:141/390    Robert Rudolph  1:261/628
     17  Neal Curtin       1:343/1      Steve Jordan    1:206/2871
     18  Andrew Adler      1:135/47     Kris Veitch     1:147/30
     19  David Drexler     1:147/1       (vacant)
      2  Henk Wevers       2:500/1      David Melnik    1:107/233

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FidoNews 6-18                Page 23                   1 May 1989


                                      __
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                    (________)     (_/(_|(____/ (tm)

            Membership for the International FidoNet Association

     Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
     pays  a  specified  annual   membership  fee.   IFNA  serves  the
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     increase worldwide communications.

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     Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
     US Funds to:
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     Thank you for your membership!  Your participation will help to
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     Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
     and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
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     -----------------------------------------------------------------
