°°² °²  ²±° Ý te±²°±Ü°°²°°²Ü  ±°Ü ßþÜ°ÜÜÜ ßß ßþÜÛÛÛ± ÜÜßßß ÜÜþßÛ°°°ÛÜ þ Þ²ÞÝhal  °ÛÞ ßßßß ß°²²²²ÞÛÛ±ÛÛß°²Üß°°²Þ°ÜÜ  Ü°²°ßßß  °ÛÞ °Û±± °²²ÞÜÜÜÜÜÜ°²ß²²ßßßß°²  °ÛÞÛ°°Ý±±±ÝÞ±±°°ÛßßßßßÜÜÜÜÜ °²Þ²Ý  ßßßßÛÛ°°²ÛÜÞ²²±±°ÜÜÜÜÜÜßß²Ü°Ü ÜÜ°ß ßþþÞ±²²°ßß²²  ²±° °°ÜþßßÝÛÛÝÛÛ ßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛ°²Ý Üßß°°²  Ü ß²²  ±°Þ þÜÜÛÛ ±²Ý ±Ü Û°Ý ÜþÞÛ °²°°ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Üþß þÜ ß²  °ÛÞ Ý ÜÜ°±°ÜÜþßßßß ±°Ý ÜÝ Û°ÝÜþßÞÛ² ²ÜÜÜ  °ÛÞ Ý Ý°±±Üþß°°ß°±°ÜÝßß²² ß  ßßßÜ ßÛ°°°ÛÛ²° ßßß²Ý °² Þ²ßß °±±±±±ÛÜÜÜ°° °°²ß þß °°°°°²°² °² - surreal babbles! - hola. that's spanish for hello, if you didn't know. not that it matters or anything, of course. oh, and sorry we're a few days late .. we had a few unforseen delays :) .. hopefully you haven't fallen out of your chair at the fact that halaster isn't writing the newsletter this month, and you've realized that yes, that IS surreal logic writing firenews. odd, eh? well, first off, I'll explain why good old halaster isn't writing your newsletter this month. in order to do this, I'll be forced to dispell all those ugly rumours about poor jesse injuring himself while putting a little hair on his hands .. they're not true :) in fact, he fell while skating and scraped about 75% of his body hair off, in addition to fracturing his nose, and hurting his hands - the reason he isn't writing this newsletter. yes, he's all right, if a little embarrassed (according to talen :). so I am here as his temporary replacement. temporary, you say? yes, he should back typing 600 words per minute within a week or two, so don't cry. ah, now to the good stuff. for yet another month, we've survived to put out another great pack for your perusal ... to keep the old saying alive, no, we aren't dead yet! :) our now-treasured constitution seems to be fully in order, and our web site, fireweb, should be up sooner or later (yes, I'm still working on it, damnit! :) ... some minor staff changes this month: maxwell returns to replace panacea as coding head this month and is nice and comfy back in his old position. halaster has also been voted most likely to break his nose while skateboard.. wait, that's already been done :) ... in other news, our new team setup seems to be working in full force. all the divisions show a large representation in this wonderful pack. the brand-spanking new fire music division will no longer be called that :) ... instead, it will go by the codename radianCe. I'll let silicon  explain this in further detail later in the newsletter. other than that, there has been LOTS going on with fire over the last month. I'll let some of the other seniors explain their stories :) ... - pyrodraw update - as a side note, panacea is STILL with Fire - contrary to popular belief - and still running projekt aardv4rk, aka pyrodraw. I'll let good ol' panny ramble on about that right about now .. - even better then an amoeba ... -  Pyrodraw is a program that I'm writing for Fire. It's a drawing program that will make files for the "ANSI" format. With Pyrodraw, one is able to use the keyboard and mouse (if available) to draw "ANSI" pictures and become "ELITE".  We decided to let people use up to 16 colors, numbered from 0-15. The  higher 8 colors will be brighter versions of the first 8. The colors supported in Pyrodraw are still undecided, thus they will be announced later.  So far Pyrodraw is relatively sophisticated. We have created several  features that will allow better pictures to be drawn, such as the ability to change the 16 colors Pyrodraw defaults to. Although, Pyrodraw still needs decorations for many screens, so message Panacea to ask how you can help out. - ascii update - once again, blatz rambles about this month's ascii stuff. infofiles are tiring. remind me not to volunteer next month .. - bleh.. blergh.. bl4tz! (damned hairballs :) -    This month was amazing for the fire ascii division.. we got three of  the best ascii people inthe scene.. they rule..worship them.....   ack.. ack comes from trank/basic/iesus/kts/etc.. he rules.. yay aCk..  also coming is pixelpusher. he comes from mop/oil/jinx/acid and a slew of   others. he's amazing..his colored ascii is grade A. also joining is unsane.  everyone knows unsane.. he was in acid/saga/ice and everyone in fire is  excited about having him in the group.. unsane=yay! .. whoah, this info   file sucks.. it's late, i'm tired. seeing as how big fire ascii is getting,  next month we might put the logos in one or two big collys.. i dunno, we'll  see.. tell me what you think.. oh yeah... smokey left fire and the rest of the scene due to a big ass phone bill or something.. too bad, he was really  good.. bye bye smokey.. uhmm.. that's all for now.. somebody say columbo..  Last minute additions: Coming to fire ascii in the last minute are  point blank and xane. They both come from sole. Pblank is a promising new  ascii artist who is getting better with every ascii and Xane is an old  favorite from trank who is getting back into the scene. I guess you could  say sole merged into fire ascii since it only had these two members. =) - hirez update-o-rama - welcome to denny's .. please find a ... err, maybe not. I'm back again, people, with some info concerning this month's happenings in my own loved, cherished hirez division (yes, you lazy-assed bastards! you! :) - oooh .. baby. that's so surreal! wait.. maybe not. - Üß Ü°² Ü±Ü ßß°°±ÝÜÜ²Ü°Ü ßÜÜܲÜÜ  ²°±²ß±²± Þ²²ß Üß²²Ü ܲ°² ß²ÛÜܲ²°°ÜÜÜÜÜ Ü Þ°±Ý°Þ±°°Ü²±ÝÜܲݰޱ²°ßÞ²±ßßß ß °Ü²ßß Ü°±Ü ÜÜ°° ܱÜÜ °°°°Ü ßß߲߲±² ß °°±°Ý°Ü°±ß Ü°Ü Ü² °² ß °ßß ßß   °Þ°±°Üßß°Üßßßß±°°±Ý  ßßß ß°  yes, it's me again. I'm sure you're getting tired of my ranting by now, but we have news! yes, fire hirez division news! well, why don't we get the new members out of the way. clear the floor, please. first off, gig is a talented new vga artist who comes to us from a smaller scene group, leper society. his photomanip work looks to be a great addition to our growing fire hirez crew! outkast is another great artist, joining directly from CiA. his rip and comic-vga work are quite impressive; satansly, a spiffy brazilian artist, came to us after the death of decades  last month, and his rip work is also favourably padding our now thickening RIP portfolio. this month, I have also decided to take on a sub-coordinator in the fire hirez division: none other than our former vga coordinator, legendary fire hirez artist extraordinaire, god among lice. I'd like to throw out a personal thanks to good ol' phil, because without him fire hirez wouldn't have the wonderful august memberlist we can now proudly preen over :) fire hirez has also decided to participate in the NAID '97 graphics competition next year on both the individual and group levels, but that's  still a long ways away. it's something to aim for, though, and I guess that's what counts. in other news, I hope that the fire hirez division members will begin contributing to the fireweb effort in earnest once production is heavily under way. to all of you fire hopefuls out there, send us your apps! fire hirez is in a growing phase right now, and that means that NOW is the best time to apply. applications can be sent to me (see below for e-mail address), or god among lice (psmith@patriot.net). thanks, and enjoy! surreal logic (fire hirez coordinator) % dbouton@direct.ca  - eerie-kun is STILL in the trash can? -    since the release of the august samsara pack, you may have noticed that the samsara tactical team somehow managed to release eerie-kun from halaster's treasured trash can. let's not go into details about the gratuitous violence involved :) well, tough luck. *cough* .. err.. that was a decoy! (snicker :) .. hey, let me out! no, shut up :P don't you have a cybertopia font to draw or something? luckily for the fire crew, halaster's trusty compan.. er, trash can :) is still holding mr. turgeon nice and tight ... come and get him, you samsarian anal cattle probes! ransom is still $10 US, $15 CDN :) - coding update .. hah, you wish! -  for the second month in a row, our illustrious coding department has managed to forget their update. thanks, clay :) *POOF* on second thought, maxwell just reappeared. maybe we will have a spiffy new coding update after all! - el pollo loco es en la casa de maxwell! (?) -   Greetings fellow Fire fans, and welcome to another fun-filled newsletter. Within the past month, Fire has undergone a series of changes,  and the Coding department was certainly not overlooked by any of them. The title of Coding Coordinator changed hands 4 times in as many days, and was even abandoned altogether for a while. I am now once again heading  up the division and accepting applications from talented Coders who would  like to join our ranks and be a part of the eternal flame that is Fire.    Coding is the most overlooked aspect of the art scene, and unrightly  so. As in theatre, where the technicians who run the show often remain behind the scenes and receive little acknowledgment, the Coders of the scene don't get the respect they deserve. Without Coders, many innovations  such as iCE-Color, RIP, Sauce, and even most music formats would not exist.   In addition, we wouldn't have ansi viewers or editors, loaders,  application generators, and other such delights common to the scene. In an attempt to revive the art of Coding and restore the prestige which Coders  deserve, the Fire Coding Division continues to recruit talented new members  and put their skills to use. Fire is already home to some of the best  Coders in the scene, such as Aphelion, Floating Point, Intrepid, Panacea,  and child prodigies Fatslayer and Lord Cracker.  Fire has numerous projects in the works, including Panacea's ansi editor Pyrodraw, which breaks through the limitations of the standard TheDraw hacks and provides hi-resolution ansi editing, and even has RIP  editing capability. Pyrodraw is still in its early alpha stages, and it  won't be released to the public until a final beta version has been deemed  "bug-free", but we feel the capabilities of this editor justify the wait.  Additionally, Fire continues to lead the scene with Pyroview, the first and only art scene viewer to support the popular JPEG graphics format. While still in early beta testing, this month's version of Pyroview claims to have the fastest and smoothest operation of any viewer to date,  and we've also added support for the animation formats FLI and FLC, which allows for a whole new medium with which artists can express their creativity. Other projects include porting Pyroview to 32-bit Windows and X-window  platforms, designing demos for international competitions, and of course,  simple loaders. Fire has also revised the aging RIP protocol specification,  allowing for animated RIP graphics sure to please the eye. It is my goal to make the Fire Coding Division the best group of Coders in the scene, and so far, it's becoming a reality. maxwell (fire coding senior) - music division update -  in the last month, fire has acquired an strange collection of members, odds, and ends. in the mean time, we also acquired a music division! fire music division founding member silicon (who also runs our mailing list) has  taken over as music division coordinator, so I'll let him have a go at explaining his situtation :) - whip out those implants and dance, baby! -  == d$$#*$$b d$$*#$$b #$$b #$$b d$$*#$$b d$$#*$$b d$$#*$$b d$$#*$$b == == %$%l `*' `*' l%$% l%$% l%$% `*' l%$% %$%l %$% %$%l `*' %$%l `*' == == :%:i ,d**b:%: ,d**b:%: i:%: ,d**b:%: :%:i :%: :%:i :%:i.n. == == .|. %: .:. %: .:. :.|. %: .:. .|. .|: .|. .|. `" == == : :. . :. . . : :. . : : : .:. : .:. == == . . . . . . . . `.::' . `.::' Si  Fire will be starting a music division called radianCe. Since music files tend to be so big we've decided to put it in a different zip. The  files will be named RAD-XXXX.ZIP, or if needed RADXXXXA or RADXXXXB, etc.. At this point we don't know how often we'll be releasing the radianCe pack.  The packs will consist of the music files and a player programmed by Fatslayer of Fire.  Much of radianCe is still in the planning stages. We'll keep you updated in these newsletters as the planning progresses.  Those who are interested in joining radianCe should e-mail me at silicon@hemi.com. Si[Fire] - silicon@hemi.com - fire music senior/mailing list coordinator - ansi doOdlebOys update- after all that fun with the skateboard, or the tent peg, or whatever it was :), good ol' halaster has still found the energy (?) to write up a little update on the undercover activities of our renowned ansi division. hope your hands heal quick, jesse .. - mr. rogers on ansi -  AHEM. I am not mr. rogers, thankyouverymuch. Well! To start this  off right, I figure I should avoid talking about Fire ansi as much as possible and jump right in to my irrelevant (?) personal problems! woohoo! I had a nice attack of real life this month. In short: Skating Accident, Moving Back to School 1000 Miles away in 8 days, Neat Girl at Work that I want to Do Something (I'm not sure what at all) With, Brother Moving Down from New Jersey to Atlanta and Being Very Sad About It. Olympic Games In My Home Town. :) Basically, these are all the excuses I can come up with for why Surreal took over this month (Thanks Surreal!) I'll be back next month with my usual flair, but I do need a vacation every once in a while.. I've been doing this for 2 years now! BTW: Last month was Fire's 2 Year anniversary Pack. Kinda. It's been 2 years since Donut Hole and Vendetta released the famous FIRE0794 pack. Greets to the original crue: Mr Sinister / Sir Freaksalot / Neurosis / Donut Hole / Phusion Vendetta / Prisoner#1 / Agent Orange / Epitaph / Silence !!!!!  OK, Back to the present - Fire ansi picks up some rad new members this month, most of which don't need introductions. Here they are anyway. Unsane joins this month (or did he change his handle?) to spread his font magic along with Argon of Persuit/iCE fame. I love Argon fonts! Mavrik returns to Fire this month (he made a guest appearance way back in our revival pack) and kicks off his Fire membership with a cool pick in this very pack! Vade 69 joins this month from CiA (Sorry, Napster!) and brings his impressive Ansi talents to bear this month as well. Deaccession, formerly of DARK ILLUSTRATED (Sorry Xypher!, and Sorry to Cthulhu for Mavrik! :P :P :P) brings his impressive smallscale and unique largescale style to help bolster our strength. Finally, Psychoholic returns to us after the regrettable demise (BWAHAHAH!) of TOXiC. Just kidding, pH. A word on the new Legend: Legend doesn't exist without Somms, Neurotic and Iodine. Leave well enough alone. Legend left the scene with a reputation of being one of the best groups of all time. There is no way that this new incarnation can hope to improve that image, and can only cause more harm than good. Nice try fellows, but earn your own reputation. A word on Samsara: 33rie? B4mb00? I'm done. ° ÞhÝalaster (fire) - fireweb update -  once again, the fire web division rises to meet whatever challenges it might face in the harsh, brutal world of web development. with other groups' web divisions snapping at our ankles, we scale the Everest of all web projects: fireweb. progress, as expected, is slow, but the undertaking is immense, and it is the quality of the progress, not the speed, which becomes the deciding factor. in the following info-snippet, I'll recap this  month's fireweb events, and give you a whiff of where we're heading next. - almighty webheads unite!  - ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Ü°°°ßßß°°°°  ßßß °°°°ßßß°°°Ü °±±°ßßß°°°°ß°°°° °°° °°°°° °±±°ßßß°°°° °°°°ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ±°°± °±°°±Ü°°°° ±°°± °±°°±Ü°°°°ßßßßßßß ±°°± °°° °±°°±ß°°°°ßßßßßßß ±°°± °°°°° ²±±²ÜÜ°±°°± ²±±²±°°± °±°°± ß±±²Üܱ±Üܲ±±² ±°°± °±°°±ß²±±²  °±°°± ßßßß°²±±²ßßßßßßßßßßß²±±²   ßßßßßß²±±² Û²²ÛÜÜܲ±±ß  the unchallenged, un-bested, not-quite-lazy and altogether completely unmotivated fire web division rises to the call once again! well, scratch that. we aren't completely unmotivated, we're just busy as hell :) well, this coming month, you may actually glimpse a preview of the upcoming pinnacle of our HTML dreams, fireweb! yes, it's still under construction,  but we're getting our asses in gear, so you should see something soon. this month, we've been graced with a pair of new members, in addition to the return of our old coordinator. wired, aka cybernary, has returned from stasis in the now-defunct decades crew. a talented ansi fontist and well known for his scene newsletter, cyberdata, wired has moved himself entirely into the web design field, and brings us a wealth of knowledge, in addition to endless help with netherwOrld and other projects. from within fire come two other talents, gig and panacea. gig will be working on the fireweb graphics, and panacea, a versatile coder, is learning HTML in order to help our little division out. panacea will also be handling the brand-spanking new fireweb complaint department, as he seems quite talented in that area as well :) ... look for new info on fireweb in the near future. oh, yes. for all of you who still aren't clued in, netherwOrld is  still serving as our temporary webHQ, until fireweb is up and running. it can be found at:  http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/kates/nwOrld/index.html by the way, if you've noticed the 0896WEB.ZIP sitting in your Fire dir, unzip it with -d (directory structure). it's this month's HTML FireWeb Memberlist, so be sure to load up your favorite browser (JavaScript compatible, if possible), preferrably Netscape Navigator 3.0bx or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0bx and view 0896WEB.HTM. credits are commented out, and listed in the HTML itself (which means you need to view the code to see'em). on our current web front, netherwOrld is temporarily in stasis as well, until I have time to finish the new, redesigned version (this should also be in the near future). at the same time, wired and myself are currently hard at work on a new graphic design webzine, yet untitled. we'll provide more info once it's available, but other than some artist spotlights, don't look for it to have any connection to the underground scene at all (unlike its counterpart, netherwOrld). for more information, e-mail me, or my sub-coordinator, spark (bhassard@intergate.bc.ca). we'll  keep you posted. surreal logic (fireweb coordinator) % dbouton@direct.ca  - closing - ah, another tantalizing fire newsletter comes to an end, and you begin to wonder why you find yourself panting in breathless anticipation of the rest of the pack that has yet to pass in front of your coloured-block starved eyes? oh, that's normal. but remember, the only way to fulfill that  rabid desire is to look closely and carefully at the rest of this sunny august's fire pack. hope you enjoy it, or I'll have to send Halaster and his mighty army of skateboarding hospital workers to hunt you down and  stuff rest of the pack into your shirt. enjoy :) ° ÞsÝurreal logic the temp (fire) ° dbouton@direct.ca  °  - one more note from halaster - THE REGENCY goes back online as of August 30th! Be there! telnet://tregency.res.cmu.edu for the BBS and ftp://tregency.res.cmu.edu for one of the best art collections around! All Fire members are expected to have accounts on TREG (if at all possible) by the September pack. - eof - SAUCE00Newsletter for 0896 Senior Staff fire 19960815hP