F I D O N E W S -- Vol.10 No.20 (17-May-1993)

F I D O N E W S -- Vol.10 No.20 (17-May-1993)
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| A newsletter of the | |
| FidoNet BBS community | Published by: |
| _ | |
| / \ | "FidoNews" BBS |
| /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: |
| | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
| | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
| |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet addresses: |
| |
| Sylvia -- [email protected] |
| Donald -- [email protected] |
| Tim -- [email protected] |
| Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) |
| [email protected] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies and other boring but important details, |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
========================================================================
Table of Contents
========================================================================

1. Editorial..................................................... 2
2. Articles...................................................... 2
The Cynic's Sandbox, v2 1/2................................. 2
Thoughts from the Fido Express.............................. 3
Bananas in wonderland....................................... 6
LasVegas Net................................................ 7
VoteFix v0.04b.............................................. 10
Deleted and ignored and annoyed............................. 10
NUDE_NET is now available!.................................. 12
Dark Fibre, Dumb Network.................................... 13
LuxCon/EuroCon '93 - UPDATE................................. 22
3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 28
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 2 17 May 1993

========================================================================
Editorial
========================================================================
EDITORIAL ;Tom Jennings forwarded us a rather
;fascinating article this week.
if Emma had a BBS ;Since it is quite long and
in two thousand five ;very technical, we decided to
a globular plant ;run it in two parts; half this
would weave intricate ;week and half next. Mr. Gilder,
delicate roots ;the author, makes an excellent
dark fibrous tenderlings ;case that the switched telephone
glowing everywhere ;network is obsolete. In it's
casting broadly ;place, he envisions a dumb fibre
nourishing ;network where sheer capacity makes
our global planet ;up for switching capability.
Emma says, ;
NO don't cut or sell, ;The result, from a technical
florists' shops ;standpoint, would resemble radio
are not gardens ;or cable TV more than our current
justly watch beauty ;telephone system.
sprout longwise ;
;The result, for the BBS community
emma's slogan: ;would be revolutionary. Picture,
play in leaves ;among other things, all echos
whole world an ;being real time world-wide
arboreal brain ;chats; the global village in reality.
========================================================================
Articles
========================================================================
The Cynic's Sandbox, v2 1/2
R. Cynic

It's blasphemy day here in the 'box, and I thought I'd take the
opportunity to talk about something near and dear to my hearts..
God. GodNET, in fact, the latest TRUE CHRISTIAN NETWORK,
dedicated to free expression. Anti-religious sorts should
express themselves freely elsewhere. Thank you, and God Bless.

What makes US different? WE'RE the ONLY TRUE Christians. All
those nasty TV Preachers, all those annoying sidewalk brochure-
handers, and the fun-lovin' guys handing out bibles across from
schools? THEY aren't TRUE Christians. WE are. US. JUST US.

Hey! Quit looking over there! US! Right here!

Sigh.

For feeds, consult your pineal gland. Fnord.

And, hey, what about that Pablo - Can he flame or what? Heck,
he even gets annoyed about the lack of FREE BEER at Fight-O-Con.
I got just ONE thing to say to him - Forget the formal schtuff
and hit the Bit Bucket suite. Last two times, they had a
BATHTUB full of ice and cans o' beer. Everyone who's anything
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 3 17 May 1993

in Fight-O-Net was there, and even hopeless newbies were
welcome.

The Cynic's movie pick of the month is My Neighbor Totoro, the
animated film that opened last week in some few cities. Watch
for it to come to a local theatre and check it out.

Sorry, Pablo, no free beer there.

Next week - More Flames from Fight-O-Net!

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

Thoughts from the Fido Express

by Jerry Schwartz 1:142/928
The blurred view from the fast train...

Due to a momentary lull in echomail and some time spent off-work
due to illness, I just blasted through about three months' worth
of FidoNews. I usually try to keep current, but things have been
hectic around here: I moderate a very large echo, I'm an NC, and
due to an inability to get the phone company to fix a problem in
their trunk network I've been forced to pick up my daily 8-12mb
of archived mail on floppies. Tomorrow I'll be 1,000 messages
behind again...

Blasting through a big (if insubstantial) stack of FidoNews gives
one a kaleidoscopic view of network doings, and inspired me to
generate a series of observations on all and sundry:

---- Back a while ago, I worked on the ill-fated WorldPol
project. When we were done, the only opinion that approached
unanimity was that it was too long. Well, I haven't measured but
I strongly believe that each of the recent proposals was longer;
for certain, they had less white space. I've done my tilting at
windmills and have retired from the lists; wake me up when the
abridged version comes out.

---- Tyler Wunder was bemused by the idea that a televangelist
would have a 900 number for those opposed to his position. If
Tyler wishes to send me $1.95, I'll explain this to him;
otherwise, he can send me $1.95 so I WON'T explain it to him.

---- CallerID is the rage of the age (again). I come down on the
side of the angels, of course: in this case, the CallerID angels.
Telling me I can't use it is like telling me I can't peek out my
window to see who is knocking on my door. If I ask "Who is it?"
and you say "None of your business" then I don't open up;
furthermore, if you don't go away I call the cops. It's not like
I called YOU to ask you what your phone number was.

---- The subject of reading e-mail touched a nerve. As an NC
(and a hub before that), I forward a lot of e-mail in all
directions. Do I read it? Not really. Do I skim it? YOU BET!
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 4 17 May 1993

Does it pose an ethical quandary? Sometimes:

.... As a willing forwarder of outbound LPM, there are
technical reasons for keeping an eye on things. I run MsgTrack
to bounce routed echomail, but I still look to see who is doing
it and who they think it's going to. This enables me to give
technical advice as necessary.

.... I often wind up paying the LD tab for the next hop, and
the guy upstream runs MsgTrack as well. If I don't fix it, I pay
the tab for him to get it and bounce it right back to me.

.... And then there's the problem of circular routings. I
don't bounce LPM, of course, I just send it on. If the node I
send it to thinks it should route it through me, I come down in
the morning to find out the two systems have been playing
ping-pong all night. The last time I went away for the weekend I
came back to over 1,000 copies of the same message in my netmail
area.

.... Given that I do glance at the messages for technical
reasons, what happens if my eye is caught by something in the
body of the text? Like most of the people who responded to the
postmaster survey (except that I am even less than 4% female), I
try to pretend I never saw it. This can be easy or hard,
depending upon what attracted my attention in the first place.

........ Messages in foreign languages are easy to ignore,
since I can't read very many of those anyways.

........ Oddly enough, the messages that start "People around
here would just DIE if they knew..." or "Thank God my husband
doesn't know how to read my netmail..." are easier to ignore than
you'd think; after all, I don't know most of these people so
there's nobody to appreciate the dirt. (Thank God my wife
doesn't know how to read MY netmail ;<)

........ So far, I've never seen anything that obviously
involved criminal activity, so I've never had to cross that
bridge.

........ That leaves the third major category, the one which is
harder to ignore: the plea for assistance, often of a technical
nature. Sometimes I know the answer when the two correspondents
do not; do I but in with a solution, or bite my tongue until the
blood runs down my chin? Out of respect for the privacy of the
people involved, and so I don't get a reputation as an
eavesdropper, I keep quiet. This is tough, but I don't see any
other way. (All right, I cheat a little if it's somebody I know
well.) Weird, isn't it: the situation which is generally the
least personal poses the biggest temptation and hence the biggest
quandary.

---- Young sysops? I nodelisted a 13-year-old who's been
programming for 7 years. The only problem he poses is that his
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 5 17 May 1993

system gets unreliable during school vacations. It never
occurred to me that I should "test" him in any way beyond what I
would do for any other node; I was rather startled when it was
suggested that I should. Compared to the fully-adult sysops who
can't seem to remember their session passwords, I think he stacks
up pretty well.

---- Right-justification through blank insertion: yucko. I'm
glad the editors (be they mail or e-mail) dropped it from the
editorials, notwithstanding the political implications.

---- Sending money to somebody's personal account for the
conference in Luxembourg: I know enough about international
banking to believe that it is a pain to set up a special account;
and processing checks on a dozen currencies would likely cost so
much extra that it increase the price enormously. On the other
hand, the hotel probably takes Visa in its various international
incarnations. In my family, we always send two people to pick up
the pizza; one to carry the pizza, and the other to count the
change.

---- The quote from Ghandi: nobody has a lock on barbarism. If
Kashmir were magically transported to the middle of Bosnia, I
doubt that the fighting would die down. Western Civilization, or
civilization of any kind, is a lot more like dieting than like
being thin: it's a matter of cutting back to only HALF a pound of
flesh. I vote for randomly selected bits of inspirational
material, the more cryptic the better. "Every cliff leads in two
directions: up, and down."

---- Gays in the military? This wasn't covered in FidoNews, but
I figured it needed to be dragged in here on general principles.
Heck, what makes anybody think that having HETEROsexuals in the
military is a good idea? We need armies, and we need good,
professional ones; that's a sad fact of life. And I guess if you
want people to be able to kill other people on orders, you have
to instill a strong sense of "them versus us." But as a short,
fat, Jewish guy with glasses who uses too many semicolons, I'm
never quite sure which side of the line I'll wind up on. If by
some miracle we could replace the military with an enormous corps
de ballet, I think we'd be better off; and homosexuals seem to
mix in there pretty well despite the close quarters, shared
lockers, long trips together, etc.

So, what's my point? Hey, this is FidoNews! The point is to see
my own words circle the globe, and provoke a firestorm of
thoughtful (or at least outrageous) argument. It was either
this, or my own draft of a new Policy document which would
include the best features of all previous proposals, the
Confessions of St. Augustine, the FODOR guide to Yugoslavia, and
the third verse of "Louie, Louie." Can you spell
"Grundlichkeit"?
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 6 17 May 1993

Bananas in wonderland

by JoHo von Loco, 2:270/17@fidonet

La la la laa laa la laaa LLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAA

<sigh>.. look, real slow this time. Go east, when you hit the coast,
get out of your raft, hop on a train, tell them you want to go to
Luxembourg (probably via Belgium).. when you hit Luxembourg, go up
the stairs, exchange your yen, pesetas, or whatever it is you're
carrying and hop on the bus to Remich (they leave once every hour or
so until 2000.. I mean 8:00 PM).

When you see the network television vans, Microsoft hot-air simulated
CD-ROM mimicking window-based Jolt Cola containers, IBM's big-foot
trucks, and a mountain of used mouse pads, you've arrived. Ask the
guys in the CNN van where the party is, or wait until you hear
Flaschke's heavy metal roar for more beer or Radar's pinging..

Or better yet, stay wherever the blasphemy you are and let us have
our EuroCon in this pathetic little part of the world with our
pathetic travel directions, currency exchange information, no-
program, no-sponsors, no-participants, twelve-sandwich-eating-beer-
drinking-socializing people.. Get your superior organizing skills
together and call the people you want to see and hear and have your
own awesome get-together-event.

There seems to be sufficient interest in this year's EuroCon to fill
the Hotel, which is all we could hope for, and a few generous
sponsors seems to be willing to donate prices even you might find
worthy (including a USR HST/DS 16.8K modem, some V.Fast upgrades,
both from US Robotics France, as well as free licence keys/software
packages for FidoNet software).

If your problems with EuroCon '93 have their roots with me, I'm
inviting you to an all-out spectator event called BRUCE which we have
recently started (in fact, just this last New Years'). We'll charge a
few bucks per ticket that we'll donate to some charity and the loser
pays the beer tab. Fair enough?

In case you run out of aggression or hot-air, go buy yourself a copy
of Use Your Illusion I, crank the volume and put on track number
nine.. really, it's for you.
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 7 17 May 1993

LasVegas Net

by Nick Hard 05/13/93
New FTN NetWork! LasVegas Net.

Something NEW has hit the phone lines of the country. LasVegas Network.
After my annoucment over 2 years ago, of LV_GAMBLER here in FidoNews, I
have found it nessacery to branch this populer area on the FidoNet Back-
Bone to its own network.

The diverse topics needed more attention, and need to be broken down into
seperate areas, with the only way doing so was either to announce several
other areas into FidoNet, or begin its own Network. I opted for the network.

Response has been good, with Las Vegas holding its own as the number 1 city
in America in growth, with its swing towards family style entertainment.

LasVegas Net was first announced April 30, 1993, but has attained the
following sites in its short exsistence. If you would like to become a
part of this exciting information packed network, contact one of the
systems below!

LASVEGAS Nodelist for Friday, May 21, 1993 -- Day number 141
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

System Name Baud/Flag Telephone Number Location
======================= ========= ================== ==========

# Las Vegas GAMING COMMIS V32B/V42B 1702-565-5271..... Las Vegas
~ RealPix................ 9600/V42B 1702-566-6840..... Henderson
~ Maine-Frame S-H-&-B.... 9600/HST 1702-564-9735..... Henderson
~ Real Pro BBS........... V32B/None 1702-453-6442..... Las Vegas
~ The Root Cellar BBS.... V32B/HST 1702-253-1904..... Las Vegas
Big Joe's BBS.......... V32 /V42 1702-459-3824..... Las Vegas
@ The AmyAdviser BOXMAN.. V32B/V42B 1602-582-5174..... Phoenix
~ Strike Eagle II........ V32B/V42B 1602-486-1737..... Glendale

Investor$ Edge PITBOSS. V32B/V42B 1713-438-1219..... Houston
~ Club Elite............. 2400/None 1713-558-6217..... Houston
~ The Paper Man.......... 2400/None 1713-869-5310..... Houston
@ Smoke Signals BOXMAN... V32B/V42B 1512-576-3990..... Victoria
@ Betcha $port$ BOXMAN... 9600/None 1214-254-3115..... Irving

Searchlight City PITBOS 9600/None 1319-391-0658..... Davenport Ia
@ Files R Us BOXMAN...... V32B/V42B 1319-377-3824..... Cedar Rapids IA

The iCE Department PITB V32B/V42B 1517-423-3378..... Adrian MI

Western MO PITBOSS..... V32 /HST 1816-356-0901..... Raytown MO

The B-Line PITBOSS..... V32B/HST 1805-634-0701..... Bakersfield CA

The Daze Inn PITBOSS... V32B/V42B 1708-437-8387..... Mount Prospect

FidoNews 10-20 Page: 8 17 May 1993

The Wizard of OZ PITBOS V32B/V42B 1414-375-2088..... Grafton WI

NORTHERN ALBERTA MAPLE V32B/V42B 1403-474-0147..... EDMONTON ALBER
~ SATELLITE RBBS-MPL..... 9600/HST 1403-474-5262..... EDMONTON ALBERTA
~ Deafy's First Post Offi 9600/V42B 1403-963-0918..... Stony Plain Albe
~ The Trading Post....... 9600/HST 1403-789-4076..... Thorsby Alberta

Zones ............ 001 Nodes ........... 0026
Regions .......... 009 Pvt .............. 000
Hosts ............ 013 Down .............. 00
Hubs ............. 009 Hold .............. 00
Mail Only ........ 000 Crash ............ 048

[#]Zone [*]Region [@]Host [&]Hub [$]Pvt [-]MO [~]CM [!]Down [%]Hold

FREQ LASVEGAS from 1:209/[email protected] or Contact any of the above

Exclusive Areas From LasVegas Net

LV_GAMBLER2 rec.gambler.com Gated via my UUCP site
has demanded so much attention, this area has
LV_GAMBLER from FidoNet, rec.gambler.com from
my uucp site, and intervention from my new
Zone 777: users. This is a general discussion
area, and one of the most active areas to be
found in LasVegas Net.

LV_HORSE_RACING The Sport Of Kings! Horse racing has become
a favorite of computer users. Much time is
taken by many, entering data and trying diff
formulas to try and beat one of the hottest
National Pastimes in America today.

LV_SPORTS_BETTING Sports wagering, and Sports lines are on all
Americans minds. Even though, its only in
Las Vegas are you allowed to bet on sporting
events, the entire country always wants to know
who the favorite is!

LV_SWEEPSTAKES Lotteries and Sweepstakes are popular all over
the country. Catch the numbers from Cal, Tex, AZ
and other states that will become involved
and share their databases with us!

LV_BINGO If you can spell it, you can play it!
BINGO isn't just for old ladies any more! With
new BINGO casinos opening up, major cash prizes
are being offered.

LV_KENO KENO a game of Chance? Many say NO! Follow the
stradegy of this fast lottery game. If you like
to bet numbers, then KENO is your game.

LV_BLACKJACK Card counters meet here. They say this is the
ONLY game that CAN BE BEATEN. Find out from a
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 9 17 May 1993

few experts that I have aquired as Moderators!

LV_ROULETTE Whats the best system? Does Double 0 matter?
Can this game be beat? What are the systems the
experts use? If you like to bet the little ball
then you will want to pick our brains here.

LV_SLOT_MACHINES Slots, Video Poker and even craps! If you can put
a coin in it, then its going to be discussed
here! Talk to a Slot Mechanic! A FloorMan!
Professional Slot Players!

LV_BACCARAT Only for the rich? Not any longer! With $5 tables
opening up like BJ tables, maybe you can make a
money like the Big Boys do!

LV_CASINOS Where to go, and whats going on! Misc info on
all the casinos discussed here. Whats new, and
whats old. Who has the best buffet and the worse.
Prices, shows, cocktail waitresses, all you need
to do is ask!

LV_CRAPS Come or Dont Come? Whats the differance? Think
its too hard to learn to play. I DONT think so!
This is my area of expertise, and I love the
game. Sure, you can loose, but you can WIN too
if you use your head!

LV_POKER_LIVE Live Poker, and the rooms they play in. Can you
make a living from playing cards? Many do!

LV_LOCALS Locals meet here for local gossip. Wonder if
Stupek has tried to buy another election? Just
how did Little Stevie Wynn loose his little
finger? Is Rich Little still sleeping with
Melinda the first lady of magic?

LV_REAL_ESTATE RealPix can help you find a house!
The FIRST and ONLY BBS/echo that
features HI-QUALITY FULL COLOR
listings of properties! ALL picture
files are file requestable!
Join the FIRST national
Multiple Listing service that features
FULL COLOR pictures. Request the latest info
on our exclusive RealTour(tm) Home Touring
disks. Amiga and IBM versions available.

We hope that other areas will be added in the future as needed, but as we
stand now, we tried to cover every aspect of the LasVegas LifeStyle!

Can't come to Vega$ as much as you would like? Then Join LASVEGAS Network,
a Fido Technology Network (ftn) today, and visit as often as you wish.

More info desired? Need to speak to the Gaming Conmish? Contact me
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 10 17 May 1993

personally at any of the below addresses-

* * * 777:777/[email protected]
* * * 1:209/[email protected] - 86:8685/[email protected] - 90:300/[email protected]
* * * 51:2/[email protected] - [email protected] - [email protected]
* * * Join LasVegas Network FREQ 'LasVegas'

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

Area Netmail, Msg#49, May-13-93 07:06:10
From: Steve Mulligan (1:163/307.30)
To: Donald Tees (1:221/192)

VoteFix v0.04b

Well, I've got VoteFix v0.004b finished. It's a lot better
than v0.03b because it supports valid voters lists, valid
candidates lists and a slew of other new things.

VoteFix is a program that allows you to vote through
Net/Echo mail. The 'Election Coordinator' is the person
who runs VoteFix on their machine. Right now, they can
only run one election at a time but that will be changed
in v0.05b

People send NetMail or EchoMail to VoteFix. The subject
line is a user chosen password so when reports are posted
you remain confidential. In the message, you include your
election tag that you want to vote on and your actual
vote.

When all is said and done, VoteFix will tally results and
post them to the message base you specify. If this sounds
just like what you need, then look around on some SDS type
BBS's because it's been hatched into SDS as VFX004WB.LZH.
Or, you can FREQ it from 1:163/307 @ 9600 baud as
VFX004WB.LZH

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

Deleted and ignored and annoyed
From: Doug Mclean (1:255/9)
To: Editors (1:1/23)
Area Netmail, Msg#22, May-11-93 21:15:00

CC: FidoNews (1:1/23)
Derek Balling (formerly 1:272/69)
Janis Kracht (1:272/0)

I was shocked when I read the atricle "Deleted and ignored and annoyed"
by Derek Balling in FidoNews 1019. Having read the article, I cannot
believe that his NC could act in a manner that is so dictatorial and
counterproductive to the smooth operation of FidoNet.

FidoNews 10-20 Page: 11 17 May 1993

First, Derek was found to be running a non-legal version of FrontDoor.
While I do not condone piracy in any form, this case appears to have been
an honest mistake. The software was downloaded from another BBS, and,
according the article, it was downloaded in good faith. Derek seems to have
had no intention of pirating software, and immediately switched to legal
software when informed of the error by the authors.

The point is, did Derek's NC further investigate the problem and try to
find out the whole story? No, according to Derek, the NC immediately
issued some threats without bothering to get Derek's side of the story.
Everyone makes an occasional mistake, and honest mistakes shouldn't be
summarily threatened or punished.

Second was the discussion of cost recovery. How can the discussion of
alternatives for cost recovery be considered "excessively annoying"? What
are sysops supposed to discuss with other sysops in the echos if they can't
discuss the things that affect their BBSs? Isn't that the purpose of sysop
only echos? Or are sysops in Net 272 limited to "safe" topics like the
weather? This sounds like it was another dictatorial move by Derek's NC.

Finally, the nodediffs. What right does a NC have to tell a sysop how
many nodediffs they can keep online? Isn't Derek providing a service to
others by providing these older nodediffs rather than making other sysops
(and points that keep nodelists) download a whole new nodelist every time
the latest diff gets lost? What business is it of the NC's how far back
Derek's nodediffs go? Are sysops in net 272 also limited to only the
latest FidoNews? Does the net 272 NC dictate what other freely
distributable files net 272 sysops may and may not have on their BBSs?

Finally, when Derek complained about this new policy, the node number
was revoked without warning. Don't sysops in 1:272/* have any rights at
all to their opinions? Is having an opinion in net 272 now considered
"excessively annoying"? I'm not an expert on Fido policy, but I don't
remember ever reading anything anywhere that gives an NC the right to
revoke a node number without warning, especially when the sysop in
question doesn't appear to have violated Fido policy.

What good are rules and policies if they don't protect those that they
were designed to protect? The world has too many dictators as it is, do
we need them in FidoNet too?

I hope that Derek's situation is unique. One occasionally hears horror
stories about what has happened to other sysop's in their battles with
the powers that be, but since the net I am in (1:255) always runs smoothly,
such stories always come as a shock and are somewhat hard to believe. I
guess I am lucky to live in a net where the NC wants to work WITH the sysops
to improve everyones BBS and provide better service for the users on all
BBSs. If Janis Kracht isn't willing to do this, then perhaps 1:272 needs
a new NC.

I too look forward to hearing Janis Kracht's reply to Derek's letter. There
are two sides to every story, and I would be interested in hearing the
other side.
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 12 17 May 1993

NUDE_NET is now available!
submitted by Greg Jansen
Fido 1:123/44
written by John Kanash

Greetings ALL, I must Tell you about the next low-key, completely
Truthful and beleivable, Official NUDE NET 2/1000ths of a Century
Sunfest Get together.

Since some people did not make it for our incredible get together
on May 1st 1993 A.D. Where we all partied, and had fun and
tightlipped egomaniac homosexuals were not to be found, who told
us what to laugh at, what to think, what to say, and what to read,
and how to play.

In their absence, we managed to get together and have a really good
time, we also managed to solve world peace, come up with workable
solutions to national health care, sexual and racial discrimination,
prison overcrowding, the Bosnian "Ethnic" cleansing, Bob Johnstones
annoying mouth odor, what to do with all the old disco clothes from
the 70's, the abortion issue, and a unilateral tax code change which
not only simplifys the process, but offers signigifigant tax breaks
to corporations and individuals of all income levels. We managed to
come up with a plan to enact all of those solutions by the year 1995.
And drink a lot of Tequila and party down all night long.

When we awoke, it seems all of us, had forgotten what we said,
it seems out of the millions who attended the Official NUDE_NET
1/1000th of a Century Gala Get together, no one had bothered to
bring pen and paper, and record our monumental plans. What a pity,
even Al Gore could not remember, but after we found him naked, laying
in a puddle of Chocalate Jell-o Pudding with Sinead O'Connor, we knew
better than to ask him what he thought.

So to find out more about the NUDE_NET's next get together, call the
Dragons Lair BBS (901) 854-6870, a member of the amazingly pervasive
and enigmatic FOCALNET.

This time we plan on renting the luxury liner SS Norway, having amongst
the many entertainers present Ben Vereen, 2 live Crew, Maddona, Norman
Fell, Oingo Boingo, The Dead Kennedys, Ted Kennedy, Alice Cooper,
AC/DC, Paula Abdul, Queen with even newer front man Bob, the head from
those ridiculous Krystal Commercials, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Very Cool
Bell Peppers (a local band), U2 with bono giving some artsy speech on
some free the prisoners of some country or some non-sense, Aerosmith
(with out Steve Tyler getting naked), Whitney Houston, Moterhead,
the Beatles will make a surprise appearence, with the guy who played
Jack the Ripper in the movie about time travel and H.G. Wells as
John Lennon, he can't sing, but he sure looks like John. Micheal
Jackson will be playing a ukelele made of his rat Bens intestines, and
Tim Curry will get together the old RHPS cast and do a few numbers
from the movie.

We will be having a delicicous amount of food drop shipped into the
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 13 17 May 1993

Norway including bald eagle eggs, elephant ears (fried), croccodile
tail, monkey brains, spotted owl eyes, left-overs from the Barbara
Streisand cookout (sure its tough and stringy, what did you expect),
and we will have a whole buffet of delicous and near extinct animals.
Fur Coats and lizard skin boots will be given away as well as feathered
ladys hats.

For additional entertainment, the comedians Robin Williams, Eddie
Murphy, George Carlin, BobCat Goldthwait, and Soupy Sales will all
do shows. (soupy may have a prior engagement, but everyone else is
free). For fun we will also have booths, were for a buck you can
cram Oatmeal down Wilford Brimleys throat or other bodily orifice and
tell him its "The right thing to do". You will also be able to spend
a buck and shove a handful of Joan Rivers cheap costume jewelry she
hawks on the Home Shopping Club down her throat. We will also have
the "Do Claudia Shiffer for a buck" booth. The money will be donated
to "Lou's Kids" a subdivision of "Jerrys Kids" where the money is
actually donated to Iraqi War efforts. There will be hundreds of
beautiful, naked, virgin, nymphomaniac, wealthy, mostly blonde and
big chested women on board who will do whatever you wish, as well
as lots of young boys for people who like that sort of thing.

This will cost you nothing, merely check out the NUDE_NET, and make
reservations, in fact the first 10,000 people to make reservations
get 20,000 dollars in cash and Cindy Crawford. The cruise will begin
on May 10th and end on May 11th 1993 A.D, and the entire cast of the
Love Boat will be our offical hosts, as we sail to a recreation of
"Fantasy Island", we will spare no expense in fulfilling each persons
fantasy, and the warden has even agreed to allow Jerve' Villachez time
off from prison to come and help out at the NUDE_NET Gala 2/1000th
sunfest cruise. Be there or be square.

Homosexual, Oppresive, Know it alls are not welcome.

Swinging Dick
Sodomizer-general
NUDE-NET

Call Dragons Lair for more info on NUDE_NET (901) 854-6870
Fidonet Address 1:123/5

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

Dark Fibre, Dumb Network
George Gilder / MCI ID: 409-1174

The following article, INTO THE FIBERSPHERE, was first published
in slightly different and shorter form in Forbes ASAP, December 7,
1993. It is a portion of my book, Telecosm, which will be published
next year by Simon & Schuster, as a sequel to Microcosm, published in
1989 and Life After Television published by Norton in 1992.
Subsequent chapters of Telecosm will be serialized in Forbes ASAP
beginning with the March issue containing a theory of wireless
communications.
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 14 17 May 1993

PLEASE POST FIBERSPHERE TO ANY USENET
NEWSGROUPS THAT MAY BE DEEMED SUITABLE.

THE COMING OF THE FIBERSPHERE

In a world of dumb terminals and telephones,
networks had to be smart. But in a world of
smart terminals, networks have to be dumb.

BY

GEORGE GILDER

Philip Hope, divisional vice president for engineering systems
of EDS, has an IQ problem. His chief client and owner, General
Motors, wants to interconnect thousands of 3-D graphics and computer
aided engineering (CAE) workstations with mainframes and
supercomputers at Headquarters, with automated assembly equipment at
factories in Lordstown, Indiana, and Detroit, with other powerful
processors at their technical center in Warren, Michigan, with their
Opel plant in Ruesselheim, Germany, and with their design center
outside San Diego. On behalf of another client, Hope wants to link
multimedia stations for remote diagnostics, X-ray analysis, and
pharmaceutical modeling in hospitals and universities across the
country.

Any function involving 3-D graphics, CAE, supercomputer
visualization, lossless diagnostic imaging, and advanced medical
simulations demands large bandwidth or communications power.
Graphics workstations often operate screens with a million picture
elements (pixels), and use progressive scanning at 60 frames or
images a second. Each pixel may entail 24 bits of color. That adds
up fast to billions of bits (gigabits) a second. And that's for last
year's technology in a computer industry that is doubling its powers
and cost effectiveness every year.

What Hope needs is bandwidth and connections. The leading
bandwidth and connections people have always been the telephone
companies. But when Hope goes to the telephone companies, they want
to tell him about intelligence: their Advanced Intelligent Network
which will be coming on line over the next decade or so and will
solve all his problems. For now, they have what they call DS-3
services available in many areas, operating T-3 lines at 45 megabits
(million bits) a second. These facilities are ample for most
computer uses and working together with several different Regional
Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), Hope should be able to acquire
these services in time for a General Motors takeover by Toyota.

Hope has been through this before. In the early 1980s, he
actually wanted D-3 services. Then he was interconnecting facilities
in Southeast, Michigan, with plants in Indiana and Ohio. But
Michigan Bell could not supply the lines in time. EDS had to build a
network of microwave towers to bear the 45 megabit traffic. Later in
the decade, the phone companies have even offered him higher capacity
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 15 17 May 1993

fiber optic lines, with the requirement that the optical bits be
slowed down and run periodically through an electronic interface so
the telco could count the number of equivalent channels being used.

What Hope and others in the systems integration business need is
not intelligent networks tomorrow but dumb bandwidth that they can
deliver to their customers flexibly, cheaply, and now. To prepare
for future demand, they want the network to use fiber optics. It so
happens that America's telephone companies have some two million
miles of mostly unused fiber lines in the ground today, kept as
redundant capacity for future needs. Hope would like to be able to
tap into this dark fiber for his own customers.

As a leader in the rapidly expanding field of computer services,
EDS epitomizes the needs of an information economy. With a backlog
of 22 billion dollars in already contracted business, EDS is
currently a seven billion dollar company growing revenues at an
annual rate of 15 percent, some three times as fast as the phone
companies. EDS will add a billion dollars or so in new sales in 1992
alone. If the company is to continue to supply leading edge services
to its customers, it must command leading edge communications. To
EDS, that means dumb and dark networks.

THE DARK FIBER CASE

That need has driven EDS into an active role as an ex parte
pleader in Federal Case 911416, currently bogging down in the
District of Columbia Federal Court of Appeals as the so-called dark
fiber case. On the surface, the case, known as Southwestern Bell et
al versus the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Justice
Department, pits four Regional Bell telephone companies against the
FCC. But the legal maneuvers actually reflect a rising conflict
between the Bells and several large corporate clients over the future
of communications.

Beyond all the legal posturing, the question at issue is whether
fiber networks should be dumb and dark, and cheap, the way EDS and
other customers like them. Or whether they should be bright and
smart, and strategically priced, the way the telephone companies want
them.

On the side of intelligence and light are the phone companies;
Southwestern Bell, U.S. West, Bell South, and Bell Atlantic. The
forces of darkness include key officials at the FCC and such
companies as Shell Oil, the information services arm of McDonald
Douglas, long distance network provider Wiltel, as well as EDS.

For most of the four year course of the struggle, it has passed
unnoticed by the media. In summary, the issue may not seem
portentous. The large corporate customers want dark fiber; the FCC
mandates that it be supplied; the Bells want out of the business.
But for all their obscurity, the proceedings raise what for the next
twenty years will be the central issue in communications law and
technology. The issue, if not the possible trial itself, will shape
the future of both the computer and telephone industries during a
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 16 17 May 1993

period when they are merging to form the spearhead of a new
information economy.

Dark fiber is simply a glass fiber optic thread with nothing
attached to it, (ie. no light being sent through it). In this unlit
condition, it is available for use without the intermediation of
phone company electronics or intelligent services.

In the mid-1980s, the Bells leased some of their dark fiber
lines to several large corporations on an individual case basis.
These companies learned to love dark fiber. But when they tried to
renew their leases with the Bells, the Bells clanged no! Why don't
you leave the interconnections and protocols to us? Why don't you
use our marvellous smart network with all the acronyms and
intelligent services? Why don't you let us meter your use of the
fiber and send you a convenient monthly bill for each packet of bits
you send?

EDS and the other firms rejected the offer; they preferred that
dumb fiber to the intelligent network. When the Bells persisted in
an effort to deny new leases, the companies went to the FCC to
require the Bells, as regulated common carrier telephone companies,
to continue supplying dark fiber.

In the fall of 1990, the FCC ruled that the phone companies
would have to offer dark fiber to all comers under the rules of
common carriage. Rather than accept this new burden, the phone
companies petitioned to withdraw from the business entirely under
what is called a rule 214 application. Since the FCC has not acted
on this petition, the Bells are preparing to go to court to force the
issue. Their corporate customers are ready to litigate as well.

It is safe to say that none of the participants fully comprehend
the significance of their courthouse confrontation. To the Bells,
after all is said and done, the key problem is probably the price.
Under the existing tariff, they are required to offer this service to
anyone who wants it for an average price of approximately $150 per
strand of fiber per month. As an offering that competes with their
T-3 45 megabit (millions of bits) a second lines and other
forthcoming marvels, dark fiber threatens to gobble up their future
as vendors of broadband communications to offices, even as cable TV
preempts them as broadband providers to homes. Since the Bells'
profits on data are growing some 10 times as fast as their profits on
voice telephony, they see dark fiber as a menace to their most
promising markets.

The technological portents, however, are far more significant
even than the legal and business issues. The coming triumph of dark
fiber will mean not only the end of the telephone industry as we know
it but also the end of the telephone industry as they plan it: a vast
intelligent fabric of sophisticated information services. It also
could mean a thoroughgoing restructuring of a computer industry
increasingly dedicated to supplying smart networks. Indeed, for most
of the world's communications companies, professors of communications
theory, and designers of new computer networks, the triumph of dark
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 17 17 May 1993

and dumb means back to the drawing board, if not back to the dark
ages.

But the new dark ages cannot be held back.

Springing out the depths of IBM's huge Watson Laboratories is a
powerful new invention: the all optical network, that will soon
relegate all bright and smart executives to the Troglodyte file and
make dumb and dark the winning rule in communications.

THE WRINGER EFFECT

From time to time, the structure of nations and economies goes
through a technological wringer. A new invention radically reduces
the price of a key factor of production and precipitates an
industrial revolution. Before long, every competitive business in
the economy must wring out the residue of the old costs and customs
from all its products and practices.

The steam engine, for example, drastically reduced the price of
physical force. Power once wreaked at great expense from human and
animal muscle pulsed cheaply and tirelessly from machines burning
coal and oil. Throughout the world, dominance inexorably shifted to
businesses and nations that reorganized themselves to exploit the
suddenly cheap resource. Eventually every human industry and
activity, from agriculture and sea transport to printing and war, had
to centralize and capitalize itself to take advantage of the new
technology.

Putting the world through the technological wringer over the
last three decades has been the integrated circuit, the IC. Invented
by Robert Noyce of Intel and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments in 1959,
the IC put entire systems of tiny transistor switches, capacitors,
resistors, diodes, and other once costly electronic devices on one
tiny microchip. Made chiefly of silicon, aluminum, and oxygen, three
of the most common substances on earth, the microchip eventually
reduced the price of electronic circuitry by a factor of a million.

As industry guru Andrew Rappaport has pointed out, electronic
designers now treat transistors as virtually free. Indeed, on memory
chips, they cost some 400 millionths of a cent. To waste time or
battery power or radio frequencies may be culpable acts, but to waste
transistors is the essence of thrift. Today you use millions of them
slightly to enhance your TV picture or to play a game of solitaire or
to fax Doonsbury to Grandma. If you do not use transistors in your
cars, your offices, your telephone systems, your design centers, your
factories, your farm gear, or your missiles, you go out of business.
If you don't waste transistors, your cost structure will cripple you.
Your product will be either too expensive, too slow, too late, or too
low in quality.

Endowing every information age engineer or PC hacker with the
creative potential of a factory owner of the industrial age, the
microchip reversed the centralizing thrust of the previous era. All
nations and businesses had to adapt to the centrifugal law of the
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 18 17 May 1993

microcosm, flattening hierarchies, outsourcing services, liberating
engineers, shedding middle management. If you did not adapt your
business systems to the new regime, you would no longer be a factor
in the world balance of economic and military power.

During the next decade or so, industry will go through a new
technology wringer and submit to a new law: the law of the telecosm.
The new wringer, the new integrated circuit, is called the all
optical network. It is a communications system that runs entirely in
glass. Unlike existing fiber optic networks, which convert light
signals to electronic form in order to amplify or switch them, the
all optical network is entirely photonic. From the first conversion
of the signal from your phone or computer to the final conversion to
voice or data at the destination, your message flies through glass on
wings of light.

Just as the old integrated circuit put entire electronic systems
on single slivers of silicon, the new IC will put entire
communications systems on seamless webs of silica. Wrought in
threads as thin as a human hair, this silica is so pure that you
could see through a window of it seventy miles thick. But what makes
the new wringer roll with all the force of the microchip revolution
before it is not the purity but the price. Just as the old IC made
transistor power virtually free, the new IC, the all optical network,
will make communications power virtually free.

Another word for communications power is bandwidth. Just as the
entire world had to learn to waste transistors, the entire world will
now have to learn how to waste bandwidth. In the 1990s and beyond,
every industry and economy will go through the wringer again.

The impact on the organization of companies and economies,
however, has yet to become clear. What is the law of the telecosm?
Will the new technology reverse the centrifugal force of the
microchip revolution...or consummate it? To understand the message
of the new regime, we must follow the rule of microcosmic prophet
Carver Mead of Caltech: Listen to the technology...and find out what
it is telling us.

THE SHANNON-SHOCKLEY REGIME

The father of the all-optical-network, the man who coined the
phrase, built the first fully functional system, and wrote the
definitive book on the subject, is Paul E. Green, Jr. of Watson
Laboratory at IBM. Now standing directly in the path of Green's
wringer is Robert Lucky, who some seven years ago at a conference at
Cornell first gave Green the idea that an all optical network might
be possible.

The leading intellectual in telephony, Lucky recently shocked
the industry by shifting from ATC Bell Labs, where he was executive
director of research, to Bellcore, the laboratory of the Regional
Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). There he will soon have to
confront the implications of Green's innovation.

FidoNews 10-20 Page: 19 17 May 1993

Contemplating the new technology, Lucky recalls a course on data
networks that he used to teach many years ago with Green. As a
computer man, Green relished the contrast between the onrushing
efficiencies in his technology and the relative dormancy in
communications. Indeed, for some twenty five years, while computer
powers rose a millionfold, network capacities increased about a
thousandfold. It was not until the late 1980s that most long
distance data networks much surpassed the Pentagon's ARPANET running
at 50 kilobits (thousands of bits) per second since the mid sixties.

This was the era dominated by the powerful mathematic visions
and theories of Claude Shannon of MIT and Bell Labs. Shannon was the
reclusive genius who invented Information Theory to ascertain the
absolute carrying capacity of any communications channel.

Whether wire or air, channels were assumed to be narrow and
noisy, the way God made them (sometimes with help from AT&T).
Typical were the copper phone lines that still link every household
to the telephone network and the air waves that still bear radio and
television signals and static.

The all-purpose remedy for these narrow, noisy channels was
powerful electronics. Invented at Bell Laboratories by a team headed
by William Shockley and then developed by Robert Noyce and other
Shockley proteges in Silicon Valley, silicon transistors and
integrated circuits engendered a constant exponential upsurge of
computing power.

Throwing ever more millions of ever faster and cheaper
transistors at every problem, engineers created fast computers,
multiplexors, and switches that seemed to surmount and outsmart every
limit of bandwidth or restriction of wire. This process continues
today with heroic new compression tools that allow the creation of
full video conferences over 64 kilobit telephone connections.
Scientists at Bellcore are now even proposing new ways of using the
Motion Picture Engineering Group (MPEG) compression standard to send
full motion movies at 1.5 megabits a second over the 4 kilohertz
twisted pair copper wires to the home. Using ever faster computers,
the telephone company is saying it can give you pay-per- view movies
without installing fiber, or even coaxial cable, to the home.

In the Shannon-Shockley era, the communications might be noisy
and error prone, but smart electronics could encode and decode
messages in complex ways that allowed efficient identification and
correction of all errors. The Shannon channel might be narrow, but
fast multiplexors allowed it to be divided into time slots
accommodating a large number of simultaneous users in a system called
time division multiplexing. The channel might clog up when large
numbers of users attempted to communicate with each other at once,
but collision detectors or token passers could sort it all out in
nanoseconds. Graphics and video might impose immense floods of bits
on the system, but compression technology could reduce the floods to
a manageable trickle with little or no loss of picture quality.

If all else failed, powerful electronic switches could
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 20 17 May 1993

compensate for almost any bandwidth limitations. Switching could
make up for the inadequate bandwidth at the terminals by relieving
the network of the need to broadcast all signals to every
destination. Instead, the central switch could receive all signals
and then route them to their appropriate addresses.

To this day, this is the essential strategy of the telephone
companies: compensate for narrow noisy bandwidth with ever more
powerful and intelligent digital electronics. Their core competence,
the Bells hasten to tell you, is switching. They make up for the
shortcomings of copper wires by providing smart, powerful digital
switches.

Their vision for the future is to join the computer business all
the way, making these switches the entering wedge for ever more
elaborate information services. Switches will grow smarter and more
sophisticated until they provide an ever growing cornucopia of
intelligent voice and fax features, from caller ID and voice mail to
personal communications systems that follow you and your number
around the world from your car commute to your vacation beach
hideaway. In the end, these intelligent networks could supply
virtually all the world's information needs, from movies, games and
traffic updates to data libraries, financial services, news programs,
and weather reports, all climaxing with yellow pages that exfoliate
into a gigantic global mall of full motion video where your fingers
walk (or your voice commands echo) from Harrods, to Jardines, to
Akihabara, to Century 21 without you leaving the couch.

At the time when Green and Lucky taught their course, this
strategy for the future was only a glimmer in the minds of telephone
visionaries.

But the essence of it was already in place. As Green pointed out,
telephone companies' response to sluggishness in communications was
to enter the computer industry, where progress was faster. The
creativity of digital electronics would save the telephone industry
from technical stagnation.

Lucky, however, protested to Green that it was unjust to compare
the two fields. Computers and telecom, as Lucky explained it,
operate on entirely different scales. Computers work in the
microscale world of the IC, putting ever more thousands of wires and
switches on single slivers of silicon.

By contrast, telecommunications functions in the macroworld,
laying out wires and switches across mostly silicon landscapes and
seabeds. It necessarily entails a continental, or even
intercontinental stretch of cables, microwave towers, switches, and
poles. How was it possible, Lucky asked, to make such a large scale
system inexpensive? Inherent in the structure and even the physics
of computers and telecommunications, so it seemed to Lucky two
decades ago, was a communications bottleneck.

As Lucky remembers it, Green was never satisfied with Lucky's
point. Green believed that someday communications could achieve
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 21 17 May 1993

miracles comparable to the integrated circuit in computing....

THE BANDWIDTH SCANDAL

Today, as Lucky was the first to announce, fiber optics has
utterly overthrown the previous relationship between fast computers
and slow wires. Now it is computer technology that imposes the
bottleneck on the vast vistas of dark fiber.

A silicon transistor can change its state some 2.5 billion times
a second in response to light pulses (bundles of photons) hitting a
photo- detector. Since it would take a human being a thousand years
or so of 10 hour workdays even to count to two billion, two billion
cycles in a single second (two gigahertz) might seem a sprightly
pace. But in the world of fiber optics running at the speed and
frequencies of light, even a rate of two billion cycles a second is a
humbling bow to the slothful pace of electronics. Since optical
signals still have to be routed to their destinations through
computer switches, communications now suffers from what is known as
the electronic bottleneck.

It is this electronic bottleneck, the entire Bell edifice of
Shannon and Shockley, that Paul Green plans to blow away with his all
optical networks. Green is targeting what is a secret scandal of
modern telecommunications: the huge gap between the real capacity of
fiber optics and the actual speed of telephone communications.

In communications systems, the number of waves per second (or
hertz) represents a rough measure of its potential bandwidth or
ultimate carrying capacity. The bandwidth of a radio system, for
example, is determined by the frequency of each station or channel
and by the number of stations that can fit within the band. Your AM
dial, for example, runs from around 535 thousand hertz (kilohertz) to
1705 kilohertz and each station uses some 10 kilohertz. With an
ideal receiver, the AM passband might carry 117 stations.

By contrast, the intrinsic bandwidth of one strand of dark fiber
is some 25 thousand gigahertz in each of three groups of frequencies
(three passbands) through which fiber can transmit light over long
distances. At a gigahertz per terminal, this bandwidth might
accommodate some 25,000 supercomputer stations (or 2.5 billion AM
stations). Using what is called dispersion shifted fiber, it may be
possible to use two of these passbands at once: a total of some 40 or
50 thousand gigahertz. For comparison, consider all the radio
frequencies currently used in the air for radio, television,
microwave, and satellite communications and multiply by two thousand.
The bandwidth of one fiber thread could carry more than two thousand
times as much information as all these radio and microwave
frequencies that currently comprise the air. One fiber thread could
bear twice the traffic on the phone network during the peak hour of
Mothers' Day in the U.S. (the heaviest load currently managed by the
phone system).

Yet even for point-to-point long distance links, let alone
connections to homes, telephone and computer network engineers now
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 22 17 May 1993

turn their backs on this immense capacity and use perhaps one or two
fifty thousandths it. Deferring to the electronic bottleneck, the
telephone industry uses fiber merely as a superior replacement for
the copper wires, coaxial cables, satellite links, and microwave
towers that connected the local central office switches to one
another for long distance calls.

Over the last 15 years, the Bell Laboratory record for fiber
optics communication has run from 10 megabits per second over a one
kilometer span to some 10 gigabits per second over nearly one
thousand kilometers. But all the heroic advances in point-to-point
links between central offices continued to use essentially one
frequency on a fiber thread, while ignoring its intrinsic power to
accommodate thousands of useful frequencies.

In a world of all optical networks, this strategy is bankrupt.
No longer will it be possible to throw more transistors, however
cheap and fast, at the switching problem. Electronic speeds have
become an insuperable bottleneck obstructing the vast vistas of dark
fiber beyond.

So called gigabit networks planned by the telephone and computer
companies will not do. What is needed is not a gigabit spread among
many terminals, but a large network functioning at a gigabit per
second per terminal.

The demands of EDS offer a hint of the most urgent business
needs. Added to them will be consumer demands. True high definition
television, comparable to movies in resolution, requires close to
gigabit-a-second bandwidth, particularly if the program is dispatched
to the viewer in burst mode all at once in a few seconds down the
fiber, or if the user is given a chance to shape the picture, choose
a vantage point, window several images at once, or experience three
dimensions. When true broadband channels become available, there
will be a flood of new applications comparable to the thousands of
new uses of the IC.

No foreseeable progress in electronics can overcome the
electronic bottleneck. To do that, we need an entirely new
communications regime. In the form of the all optical network, this
regime is now at hand.

...TO BE CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE

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

LuxCon/EuroCon '93 - UPDATE

by JoHo

LUXEMBOURG --- MAY 14, 1993

We would hereby like to announce LuxCon/EuroCon '93 which will take
place in Remich (just on the German border), Luxembourg between
Friday the 2nd of July and Sunday the 4th of July 1993.
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 23 17 May 1993

ORGANIZERS

Joaquim Homrighausen, 2:270/17@fidonet (2:2/1993@fidonet)
Andrew Milner, 2:270/18@fidonet
Francois Thunus, 2:270/25@fidonet

PLACE OF THE CONFERENCE

The four-star Hotel, HOTEL SAINT NICOLAS, situated on the Mosel
with a splendid view of the river and the many vineyards
surrounding it. SAINT NICOLAS is a Best Western Hotel with every-
thing that is to be expected of a four-star Hotel.

LANGUAGE

English.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

Friday 2/7/93
---------------
1600-2000 Arrival and registration
2000-2200 Friday night welcoming dinner

Saturday 3/7/93
---------------
0800-1000 Breakfast
1000-1030 Opening of LuxCon/EuroCon '93
1030-1100 ISDN and FidoNet
: Jan Ceuleers
1100-1130 The JAM message base format
: Andrew Milner/Joaquim Homrighausen
1130-1230 Product presentations and other sessions.
We intend to run political and technical
tracks comprising 30 to 60 minute
sessions.
1230-1400 Lunch
1400-1800 More political and technical sessions.
2000-2200 Saturday evening dinner and raffle
("lottery").

Sunday 4/7/93
---------------
0800-1000 Breakfast
1000-1200 Checkout from the Hotel
1200-1400 The annual harddisk throwing contest

SPEAKERS AND SPONSORS

> We are currently looking for speakers (political and technical)
> for the sessions and companies to sponsor the prices given away
> during the Saturday evening raffle ("lottery") and the harddisk
> throwing contest.

FidoNews 10-20 Page: 24 17 May 1993

PRIZES

The following items have been donated by the listed people/
companies. They will be given away as prizes for the Saturday
night raffle and the harddisk throwing contest on Sunday.

US Robotics France
------------------
1 pc. US Robotics HST/DS 16.8K/FAX modem
2 pc. V.FAST modem upgrade
5 pc. PowerPort dual-port serial cards

ComDas GmbH
-----------
1 pc. FrontDoor/Commercial
1 pc. RemoteAccess/Commercial
5 pc. FrontDoor APX

Tobias Burchhardt
-----------------
5 pc. FastEcho keys

Hans Siemons
------------
2 pc. OnTour keys

PROGRAM FOR ACCOMPANYING PERSONS

Several activities are available to those who do not wish to take
part in the sessions. These include a boat ride on the Mosel river,
wine tasting along the Mosel, or simply lying out in the sun
providing the weather is nice :-)

TRAVEL DIRECTIONS

Plane
-----

Quite a few connections exist, those mostly used are Brussels,
Frankfurt, and London. Most European airlines have agreements
with LuxAir and are well represented in Luxembourg.

In many cases, however, flying to Brussels or Frankfurt and
then continue from there to Luxembourg by means of train will
save quite a bit of money.

A LuxAir shuttle from the airport to the center of the city
leaves fairly frequently as does Bus #9. Once by the train
station, on your left hand-size (with your back towards the
train station) take the bus to Remich, leaving once every two
hours (five past), until 2005. There's a currency exchange
office in the train station, as well as several banks across
the street from the station.

Train
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 25 17 May 1993

-----

These are some of the more common links to Luxembourg via train
(Luxembourg is the implied destination but not listed). The
starting location is listed to the left.

Please inquire with your local train company or a travel agent
for times. Some trains may not have suitable arrival times. Most
trains via Germany pass through Koblenz and Trier. Trains via
France pass through Metz, Thionville, and/or Arlon.

Frankfurt-Mainz-Koblenz-Trier
Oslo-Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Bremen-Cologne
Berlin-Hannover-Bielefeld-Dortmund-Essen-Cologne
Salzburg-Munich-Ulm-Stuttgart-Heidelberg-Mannheim
Budapest-Vienna-Linz-Passau-Regensburg-Nuernberg-Wuerzberg
Heidelberg-Mannheim-Kaiserslauten-Homburg-Saarbruecken
Oostende-Brugge-Gent-Brussels North-Arlon
Liege-Angleur-Poulseur-Rivage-Aywaille-Coo-Gouvy
Muenster-Oberhausen-Duisburg-Duesseldorf-Cologne-Bonn
Paris-Bar le Duc-Metz-Thionville
Nancy-Metz-Hagondange-Thionville
Barcelona-Cerbere-Narbonne-Agde-Avignon-Metz
Zurich-Basel-Metz
Chiasso-Lugano-Bellizona-Luzern-Basel-Metz
Bale-Mulhouse-Colmar-Strasbourg-Metz-Thionville
St Maurice-Moutiers-Albertville-Chambery-Lyon-Dijon-Metz
London Victoria-Dover-Oostende-Brussels North
Amsterdam-Schiphol-Leiden-Haag-Rotterdam-Brussels North
Brussels Midi-Ottignies-Namur-Jemelle-Libramont-Arlon
Venice/Rome-Milano-Basel-Metz

Car
---

From Netherlands and Belgium: Take the best road to Luxembourg
City. You will probably be taking the E25 motorway (LIEGE,
ARLON).

From France: take your choice of roads via METZ or THIONVILLE,
and follow the signs to Luxembourg City.

When in the city, follow the signs to GARE (main trainstation).
When passing the station, follow signs to SAARBRUCKEN and
REMICH for about 30 km until you have arrived.

From Germany: Go to TRIER and continue into Luxembourg. You're
adviced to stay on the motorway until you reach the airport exit,
from there you will go around the airport until you reach the
road to SAARBRUCKEN and REMICH mentioned above. An alternative
route is via SAARBRUCKEN, from where you have about 70 km of
road to Luxembourg (signposted). When you cross the border taking
that road, you will instantly be in Remich.

PARTICIPATION FEE
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 26 17 May 1993

The participation fee is LUF 5500.-, wich covers the sessions,
conference literature, all meals from Friday evening to Sunday
morning (inclusive), an official LuxCon/EuroCon '93 t-shirt,
two nights in a double room (double occupancy) at the Hotel.

Payment can be made by transferring money to the bank or CCP
(postal giro) account listed below. Please make sure that you
transfer the correct amount (if your bank does not know what LUF
is, tell them to transfer BEF, which is Belgian Francs). You are
responsible for covering all transfer charges. Include your
name, voice telephone number, and FidoNet network address.
Transfers with an insufficient amount or information will not be
honored as a valid registration.

The rooms will be given on a first come, first serve basis (this
is decided upon the arrival of the money transfer should it come
to that). If there are no more rooms available, we will attempt
to find a room in a Hotel nearby, but cannot guarantee this (in
which case your money will, of course, be refunded).

For those who wish to take the economy alternative, there is a
camping ground in Remich (you must still register for the
conference as indicated on the registration form below). The
name of the responsible company is CAMPING EUROPE, telephone
+352 698 018.

EXCHANGE RATES

The local currency is LUF (Luxembourg Franc) which is identical to
BEF (Belgian Francs). The following is a list of approximate
exchange rates.

1 AUST SCH = LUF 2.91
1 GB Pound = LUF 50.93
1 DAN Kr = LUF 5.35
1 GER Dm = LUF 20.56
1 NETH Fl = LUF 18.30
1 FINN MARKA = LUF 5.98
1 FR Fr = LUF 6.10
1 GK DRAC = LUF 0.15
1 IR Punt = LUF 50.10
1 NOR Kr = LUF 4.85
1 PORT Esc = LUF 0.22
1 SPAN PES = LUF 0.28
1 SWE Kr = LUF 4.42
1 SWI Fr = LUF 22.80
1 US $ = LUF 32.31

REGISTRATION

Print and fill out the registration form and mail it to the below
address BEFORE the 1st of June 1993 (or include it in a NetMail
message to Joaquim Homrighausen on 2:270/17@fidonet). Payment will
be expected to arrive shortly after the registration form has been
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 27 17 May 1993

received.

Joaquim Homrighausen
389, route d'Arlon
L-8011 Strassen
Luxembourg

Late registration, between June 1st and July 1st 1993, is possible
but carries an additional late-registration fee of LUF 750.- as
indicated below.

PAYMENT

CCP (postal giro)
-----------------
Cheque Postaux
L-1090 Luxembourg

Account #: CCP 108637-94
Joaquim Homrighausen

Bank
----
Banque Generale du Luxembourg
L-2951 Luxembourg
SWIFT bgll lu ll
Telex 3401 bgl lu

Account #: BGL 30-511818-80-010
Joaquim Homrighausen

EuroCheques
-----------
Alternatively, you may use EuroCheques for your payment. The
maximum accepted value is LUF 7000.- per cheque. Simply mail
the cheque(s) to the above listed postal address.

REGISTRATION FORM ---- cut here ---- cut here ---- cut here ----

Full name: ______________________________________________

Postal address: __________________________________________

__________________________________________

__________________________________________

Voice phone #: ___________________________

Nationality: ___________________________

eMail address: ___________________________

Accompanying: ______________________________________________

FidoNews 10-20 Page: 28 17 May 1993

______________________________________________

OPTIONS (check all that apply) COST (LUF)
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+
: : :
: YES : Complete conference package + 5500.- :
: : :
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+
: : :
: ___ : Sharing the room between 3 people - 500.- :
: : :
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+
: : :
: ___ : Single occupancy of room + 1000.- :
: : :
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+
: : :
: ___ : Conference but no meals or Hotel - 3500.- :
: : (includes Saturday lunch) :
: : :
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+
: : :
: ___ : Late registration + 750.- :
: : (1/06/93 - 1/07/93) :
: : :
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+
: : :
: TOTAL : LUF .- :
: : :
+---------+--------------------------------------------------+

REGISTRATION FORM ---- cut here ---- cut here ---- cut here ----

This file is also file requestable as LUXCON from 2:270/17@fidonet
and 2:270/18@fidonet.

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

========================================================================
Fidonews Information
========================================================================

------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------

Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Tim Pozar
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello,
Tom Jennings

IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address of the FidoNews BBS has been
changed!!! Please make a note of this.

"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14200/V.32bis/HST(DS)
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 29 17 May 1993

Internet addresses:
Don & Sylvia (submission address)
[email protected]

Sylvia -- [email protected]
Donald -- [email protected]
Tim -- [email protected]

(Postal Service mailing address) (have extreme patience)
FidoNews
172 Duke St. E.
Kitchener, Ontario
Canada
N2H 1A7

Published weekly by and for the members of the FidoNet international
amateur electronic mail system. It is a compilation of individual
articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The
contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the
rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those
of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews.

Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
copyright 1993 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or
distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in
other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or FidoNews
(we're easy).

OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or
Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each
PostPaid First Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere,
mailed Air Mail. (US funds drawn upon a US bank only.)

BACK ISSUES: Available from FidoNet nodes 1:102/138, 1:216/21,
1:125/1212, (and probably others), via filerequest or download
(consult a recent nodelist for phone numbers).

A very nice index to the Tables of Contents to all FidoNews volumes
can be filerequested from 1:396/1 or 1:216/21. The name(s) to request
are FNEWSxTC.ZIP, where 'x' is the volume number; 1=1984, 2=1985...
through 8=1991.

INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.ieee.org, in
directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. If you have questions regarding
FidoNet, please direct them to [email protected], not the
FidoNews BBS. (Be kind and patient; David Deitch is generously
volunteering to handle FidoNet/Internet questions.)

SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it.
FidoNews 10-20 Page: 30 17 May 1993

"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.

Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea".
-- END
----------------------------------------------------------------------