F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.50 (12-Dec-1994)

F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.50 (12-Dec-1994)
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS |
| _ | +1-519-570-4176 |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | Small animal psychology and |
| (_| /_) | Spiritual guidance Department: |
| _`@/_ \ _ | Rev. Richard Visage 1:163/409 |
| | | \ \\ | |
| | (*) | \ )) | Editor: |
| |__U__| / \// | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
| _//|| _\ / | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
| (_/(_|(____/ | Tim |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| Sylvia (sylly) -- [email protected] |
| Don -- [email protected] |
| Tim Pozar -- [email protected] |
| David Deitch -- 1:133/411.411, [email protected] |
| submissions=> [email protected] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of fidonews or the internet gateway faq |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
========================================================================
Table of Contents
========================================================================

1. Editorial apology again....................................... 2
2. Articles...................................................... 2
Open a Door to The Future................................... 2
Comments on FidoNews Vol.11 No.49: a letter to the editor... 3
A Fan club of One?.......................................... 5
New Echo - ALTERNATIVE NATION............................... 6
Swamp Swine Zine............................................ 7
Hacked "Terminate" circulating in BBS's..................... 9
DEAR MADAM EMILIA........................................... 11
AreaTags problem in region28................................ 14
Aid For Ukrainian Students.................................. 16
FNFILTER, a FidoNews Filter for Sight-Impaired Readers...... 17
InterSports................................................. 19
Wheelsnet Article........................................... 20
blind sysops................................................ 21
ya snooze, ya lose.......................................... 21
only* children in Fido ;-)))................................ 22
Press Release - Stop Moosaphobia now!....................... 24
Fido speed.................................................. 25
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 2 12 Dec 1994
In response to Tom Rightmer's article about "Gutter Language" 25
Secure sessions.............................................. 26
3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 27
========================================================================
Editorial
========================================================================
I blew it over Jesse Thurin's article. Fortunately, i do not have
the last word. Madam Emilia doesn't have the last word this week
either.

Who's "jm"? i would like to know wht "jm" stands for before i get
it tattooed on my ankle. Amazing i've never asked that before.

Newbies are the future.

I'm getting mad about statements made in echo's about "fifteen
year-olds", like they're some kind of category or plague..
they're not. I hate ageism. I don't mind being called a "child",
it's not an insult. "Adults" have learned things, but in some cases
they forget more than they ever knew.

Forgetting how to be playful causes wars.

Anyway, there's extra articles this week because some of them should
have been in last week, but we were away at a job and didn't get all
of the net mail. To anyone who's articles were held in limbo until
now, who hasn't yet received net mail, please accept apologies for
the delay, and thanks for the submissions.

BTW, if anyone is too nasty to our beloved Fido Phool i will
personally bop them in the nose.

========================================================================
Articles
========================================================================
Open a Door to The Future
by Andy Wilson

This article was written by an individual who likes to play door
games on Bulletin Boards. I'm new to the world of both bulletin
boards and writing but with the inspiration of a friend, I decided to
try to express feelings on Fidonet about doors, games and just advice
on what to play and what not to. So now lets enter the world of the
bulletin board.

On this journey I'm going to show you what I have already
discovered out there, so fasten your seat belt and fire it up. On my
very first trip to a bulletin board I logged on and answered questions
about myself, just like every body and was given 29 minutes to do
whatever. The first place I went was an option called "On-Line Games"
and off I went. I was now hooked on a new type of game that I had only
dreamed about and now I was there.

There are three aspects which make games great for me -- good
graphics, sound and the participation of other players. These
bulletin board games had no real graphics like my CD-ROM can give and
certainly had no sound, but the games had people playing, real
people. This isn't much of a surprise to most people but to me this
was. On most other games, you get the computer playing and you can
train your reflexes so that time and time again you can beat the
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 3 12 Dec 1994

computer and it gets boring. Even though these games are missing two
of the three aspects which make a good game, the final aspect of
gaming with lots of players participating in the same game makes up
for the loss of the others. Recently I decided to go out and buy one
of two games which had sound and graphics but they were lacking this
final feature which I had grown to enjoy.

Now, on a big bulletin board you can play a game with people not in
the same room as me and perhaps not even on the same continent. Trade
Wars 2002, L.O.T. of The Red Dragon and DOOM are the games I was
introduced to with this wonderful feature first. So far I think the
game that is the best is the Doom series because it can be played with
people far away and it gives you sound and great graphics.

However on my computer I can't play Doom so I live on daily doses of
the games I mentioned before -- L.O.T. of The Red Dragon and Trade
Wars 2002. Those games are played with true bulletin boards and
everybody that plays is given a daily dose of the game that they are
playing so things are even. On a multi-node bulletin board you can
inter-act with other players playing at the same time, form aliances
and make enemies while playing.

My friend and I are playing excellent text games with lots of action
a
nd depth. This proves that all texts aren't bad, and this coming
from a person with a biased attitude against text. Also, the more
players playing the game, the better the game is. So get onto a game
soon and enjoy the many wonders that are coming down your alley. All
you need is a modem and a bulletin board's number and you can now
play.

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

Comments on FidoNews Vol.11 No.49: a letter to the editor

by Dallas Hinton, 1:153/715
proud FidoNet node (RC 17)

I would like to make two points in this letter, the first dealing
with Mr. Kolin's unfortunate excommunication, and the second to do with
FidoNews itself.

First, I would like to draw your attention to the article on Page 9
titled "How can the ZC ignore this?". There are several problems with
this article, not the least of which is that it is unclear who is the
author. It would appear from the physical layout that it was written by
Mr. Satti, Z1C, but he tells me that is not the case. The last name,
appearing at the end of the article, is that of Rick Johnston, RC12. It
seems unlikely that he wrote it either.

Regardless of who actually authored the article, I take exception to
its publication. This article is a thinly-veiled attempt to garner
public sympathy for Mr. Kolin's rejected appeal of his excommunication
for falsifying a nodelist segment. As such, it has no place in our
FidoNews. If Mr. Kolin has a problem with the Z1C's ruling on his
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 4 12 Dec 1994

appeal, the correct procedure is to appeal to the IC. According to my
reading of Policy 4.07, no-one else can make that appeal for him and
no-one else can hear that appeal. Why, then, is space being wasted in
FidoNews by those who do not even have all the facts of the case?

Second, I would like to ask the editors of FidoNews just what they
think the purpose of this journal is? I cannot believe that publishing
articles such as Mr. Kolin's pseudo-appeal or the juvenile ramblings of
the self-styled Rev. Richard Visage aka "Doc Logger" (whoever he may be)
are doing much to further FidoNet either technically or socially.

For many years I have recommended FidoNews to new sysops and
potential FidoNet nodes as a way of finding out something about our
great hobby. Lately I have found myself embarrassed to admit that such
a journal exists. Allow me to comment on the table of contents:

Editorial
The usual whine about too much or not enough time and too many or
too few articles, although without the folksy plant information
this month.

Discriminatory Discrimination
A well-written discussion of discrimination as it applies to both
FidoNews and life.

RAMMING ECHOS [sic]
An article purporting to deal with a serious problem but which
actually serves to demonstrate the author's complete ignorance of
Policy, the IC's interpretation of policy, and the realities of
echomail in the 1990's.

Swamp Swine Magazine
This item should be labelled as 'poor quality innuendo and trash
masquerading as political satire'.

SYNDICATE-NET
While I sympathize with those who wish to advertise their new
network, I question whether it is necessary to use OUR network's
official journal to do so.

How can the ZC ignore this?
As I stated earlier, this attempt to subvert due process has no
place in FidoNews.

Fidonews for the Blind
The sort of article that belongs in FidoNews. Even though it isn't
directly about FidoNet, it is about the technical issues
surrounding our journal.

In Consideration of Others
As above.

A chat with our resigning FidoNet Z6C, Mr. Honlin Lue
Interesting. I would have preferred a slightly different format,
but enjoyed the article, nonetheless.
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 5 12 Dec 1994

Fidonews Information
In normal terms, the "masthead".

While the overall average this week is not as bad as most weeks (four
good articles, four pieces of junk, one marginal editorial, and the
usual masthead), still this is not the sort of journal which serves
FidoNet. It is not the kind of material I am please to show to new (or
existing) members. It does not further the cause of FidoNet, engender
pride, educate, or even entertain. In fact, if this journal were
printed on paper, I'd be ashamed to use it for training my dogs.

Please, Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Tees, reconsider your current editorial
policies. Either improve at the job or stop doing the job; anything but
this!

======== End text ===========

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

From: Rick Moen (1:125/27)
Subject: A Fan Club of One?

Dear Sylvia --

I was sitting around here, trying to put off doing uncountable important
things, when it suddenly occurred to me that, very likely, hardly anyone
ever writes to you who's not upset about something. I thought I'd find
a need and fill it. ;-> I like your and Donald's stuff. Don't let the
idiots get you down!

(Note for the benefit of Jesse Tharin-clones: No, Mr. Moen didn't write
a smilie. He's speaking a depraved California dialect that includes
disgusting, lewd phrases like "semi-colon dash greater-than". To
preserve some tattered remnants of decorum for this netmail, no
translation will be provided.)

As I'm sure you know, a popular pastime among those with too little
significance and too much time is to loudly and publicly take offence.
This gets them attention, lets them act the self-righteous martyr, and
beat their breasts about their various holy causes.

The _rational_ response to hypersensitivity is to make sure one is
_impartially offensive_. This is the tack I usually take, in my role
as Fido Phool. However, it occurs to me that an equally attractive
solution might be to _accept blame_ for anything and everything.
Therefore, in the spirit of economy of effort, I'm offering my services
to FidoNet as a central guilt repository. Pissed off over jests about
"dominatrixes"? Blame me. Annoyed over dimwit jesters using
non-PG-rated terms like "pissed"? I'm the one to sandbag for it.
Accordingly, I would be honoured if you would recognise this vital
function in _FidoNews_:

Official net.scapegoat: Rick Moen, the Fido Phool, 1:125/27
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 6 12 Dec 1994

There! Let it never be said that I haven't done something for the good
of FidoNet.

Cheers,
The Fido Phool

(You're welcome to print this, if and only if you wish. I double-dare
ya! ;-> )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Echo - ALTERNATIVE NATION

By Bob Stephenson, moderator (1:275/165)

Just a quick one to let everyone know about yet another new echo:

=ALTERNATIVE NATION=

Echo Description: Alternative/Grunge/Punk music discussion area
(or, "You Can Now Take Off Your Asbestos Suit").

ALTERNATIVE NATION was created in direct response to all the Kurt
Cobain etc....messages that I see floating around quite a few other
echos, but without a home of their own. As an Alternative fan, I
thought it'd be good to have a place to talk about the
music/bands/lifestyle we love without the hassle of getting
flamed by those who just don't get it...

ALTERNATIVE NATION is open to one and all, just bring an open mind and
a sense of humor! Things considered on-topic are Cobain ('bout time..),
bands, concerts, reviews, CD's, videos, - just about *anything* related
to the Alternative/Grunge/Punk scene.

ALTERNATIVE NATION is distributed by 1:275/165. Any systems wanting
more info and a copy of the echo rules should send netmail to Bob
Stephenson (moderator) at 1:275/165.

Please note that at the time of this writing, my last name is spelled
incorrectly in the nodelist as Stephensen.

This is the last sentence of my article.

FidoNews 11-50 Page: 7 12 Dec 1994

Swamp Swine Magazine
Hockey & 'Hos Curling Rink,
FlinFlon, Manitoba

Dear Reverend Visage,

Good news abounds. It seems that biologists in Australia
have rediscovered a marsupial called the potoroo which they
thought had been extinct. They will be able to ascertain
whether the potoroo is native to Australia by listening to
the female of the species...if the females do not use the
"F" word in every sentence, they are clearly imports.

Bob "Bob" Satti ( cue the plague of potoroos) has remained
remarkably silent with respect to questions concerning his
latest bout of jurisprudent madness. I had asked him to make
file requestable the material which he was sent by various
interested parties to the Stein Vs. Kolin policy complaint.
I fear that after having grunted a few short phrases in
issuing the decision, that we must wait until his Speak 'N
Spell module has recharged before we hear more.

By a remarkable coincidence, which really has nothing to do
with the fact that this esteemed organ generally mentions
Rick "Smarter than Squid" Johnston in glowing terms which
would make euglena proud; the Rickster was unable to
distribute the snooz to Region 12. Mercifully, Bob "Bob"
Satti (cue the plague of Barry Carter witticisms), has
chosen to ignore the technical malfeasance of our almost
esteemed RC in favour of more trivial issues. May the farce
be with him, and may his dreams of Peace remain undisturbed.

Naturally Rick "Smart Like Hockey Puck" Johnston has
exercised remarkable brilliance in his nodediff submission
efforts this week. He has deleted all of Net250 from the
nodelist. Message to Bob Satti: "Yo Bob, wakey wakey."
Doubtless Bob will ignore this latest bout of bad craziness
from our maniacal RC.

In other news, our cultural paranoid brethren in the
Province of Quebec have set the mechanism by which they
think they can depart Canada. I may be insensitive, Visage,
but it seems to me that we should offer all possible
assistance to let them go as soon as possible. To our
southern neighbours in the Excited States of 'Merca, this
issue could be put into some perspective if, say, New Jersey
were to announce that they were declaring independence. Who
the hell would miss them? And which other state wouldn't
gladly pay money to see them go?

Quebec is a large province composed of incomprehensible road
signs, bad drivers, and large piles of bauxite slag. Every
ten years or so, they decide to get off the Federal welfare
roll by building huge hydro electric dams which provide the
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 8 12 Dec 1994

energy that they require to cook their national beverage:
poutine ( a mixture, I kid you not, of french fries, gravy
and melted cheese.) Their perpetual sniveling about wanting
a "distinct culture" must play exceptionally well on the
beaches of Florida where they exhibit such refined etiquette
and sensitivity. If they need culture that badly, let's send
them John Denver fergawdsake.

Alas, poor Newt, we knew him well. It seems that Newt's
political ascendancy in the Excited States has crashed upon
the rocks of his ethical record. Not since Spiro Agnew
spewed about "nattering nabobs of negativism" has there been
such a target rich buffoon for the press to flail. To think
that poor Newt is only three heartbeats away from a nuclear
arsenal is such a cheery thought.

Chiquita, the maid at your hotel, phoned in an excitable
state. Her native tongue seemed somewhat slurred and I
couldn't understand everything that she said, but there was
definitely something about flintlock blasts, hogsheads of
rum, and large scaly creatures. Either you are partying in
the Rose Room with Bill Clinton or I fear a ruinously high
hotel bill appearing on the Snooz doorsteps. Speaking of
displeasing events, I cannot tell you just how surprised Don
& Sylvia were when, rather than the appropriate petty cash
voucher, you shipped the rhino from your latest adventures
in fauna goodwill. In deference to Jesse Tharin, I assured
Sylvia that I would run the rhino through the scanner to
produce suitable ascii art.

I must go Visage, I have to go out shopping for all of the
Santa things. Since you are temporarily absent, I will take
the liberty of buying Lil' Walloonetta a drum set... you'll
thank me for this when she greets the dawn with the entire
Ina Gada Davida drum solo.

Regards,

Doc Logger,
School of Potoroo Taxidermy,
Yap Island, Micronesia

FidoNews 11-50 Page: 9 12 Dec 1994

Hacked "Terminate" circulating in BBS's

by Dietmar Kneidl, mediacom USA (1:161/820)
Definitely Not The Real Thing: Hacked "Terminate" circulating in BBS's

Over the past weeks we have been contacted repeatedly about a supposedly
"Version 1.57d of Terminate", code-named "Cain". On the other hand, on
December 4, 1994, Terminate Version 1.51 was officially released. To
avoid further confusion, we wish to clear up some of the circumstances
behind this incident via FidoNews.

As the exclusive US distributor of TERMINATE in the USA, we can confirm
for certain that "v1.57d" has not been authored or authorized in any way
by the legitimate author of Terminate, Mr. Bo Bendtsen. "Project Cain"
is nothing more than a hack.

With this article, we ask you, SysOps, Points and Users of FidoNet, to
help us to stop the further distribution of these illegal files.

- The story behind the hack:

"Terminate v1.57d" has first appeared some months back in England,
distributed mainly by a bulletin board called Almac BBS. The program
was released as a personal vendetta of a former Terminate Registration
Site. This former registration Site lost his license to distribute and
represent Terminate as a consequence of unprofessional behavior and
professional differences with the author of the program.

Since June 5, 1994, the former Registration Site has taken a variety of
actions to take "revenge" against the author of Terminate, Bo Bendtsen.

These actions include posting more than 200kb of confidential netmail
messages in a public forum, repeatedly threatening the author with
lawsuits (threats which were never carried through, of course) and even
announcing physical harm to the author and other Registration Sites. The
former Registration Site has even threatened the author of the shareware
program "Panther". The conversation has been taped and a WAV file is
available upon request.

The former Registration Site and his associates have subsequently been
banned from the international TERMINAT echo on the FidoNet Backbone for
extremely annoying behavior. They have also been banned from COMMS_UK
and the SHAREWARE conference for the very same reason.

The most bizarre action taken by the former Registration Site was to
release a "Terminate v1.56b" and, shortly thereafter, a "v1.57d", in
which he falsely claimed to possess the rights to the name "Terminate",
announced that from now on, Terminate was Freeware and that his program
was a genuine update. Mere days ago, even a "1.58" has surfaced.

- The truth:

"Terminate v1.57d" is not only a hack, but is also inferior to the real
thing.
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 10 12 Dec 1994

Terminate v1.51 offers features such as Fax Send and Receive, a
fully-fledged FTSC compatible Point System, an internal File Tagger and
a File Management module that parallels commercial offerings such as
Xtree and the Norton Commander.

"Terminate v1.57d" offers none of these features, but allows you to play
"Tetris" while downloading - gee-whiz. Many menus lead to a screen
claiming that the feature is not included yet. Some copies of the file
have even been reported to be virus-infected.

To top the whole thing off, the former Registration Site continues to
sell keys to unsuspecting users - pirate keys of course. He is indeed
selling "keyfiles" for a product which he has tried to pass off as
Freeware... These keys will not work with any release of Terminate
beyond v1.41 and are not recognized by either v1.50 or v1.51.

- The legal implications:

"Terminate v1.57d" represents a severe breach of International Trademark
Laws since the name "Terminate" is a registered trademark belonging to
Strathrory Systems Ltd. Furthermore, the menus and some files of the
real Terminate program have been stolen, thus violating International
Copyright Laws as well.

The documentation of "Terminate v1.57d" claims that the program has
become FREEWARE. This claim is FALSE. Terminate continues to be
Shareware and has to be registered after a trial period of 21 days.

The current release of Terminate is v1.51, released on December 4, 1994.
In the US, the program files can be downloaded directly from the
mediacom - USA BBS at (510) 521-5757. Elsewhere, the files can be
downloaded at the national registration sites or directly from the
author's DAN BBS in Denmark, at +45-43623990. The files can also be
frequested with the Magic Name TERMINAT.

- The consequences:

All SysOps are hereby asked to please remove "Terminate v1.56b" and / or
"Terminate v1.57d" as well as "v1.58" from your file areas and delete it
from your hard disk(s). We have no interest in criminalizing SysOps,
but the software constitutes an infringement of international copyright
laws.

Points and BBS Users are asked to please point out to SysOps who are
offering "Terminate v1.57d" in their file areas that this file is a hack
and effectively constitutes pirate software.

Anyone who sees "Terminate v1.57d", "v1.56" or "1.58" on a BBS is hereby
asked to help us to get this situation back under control by either
getting in touch with the SysOp or contacting us directly by voice at
(510) 521-2833.

If the person who ran the former Registration Site, a Mr. George
Collins, should contact you and assure you that he has a contract which
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 11 12 Dec 1994

proves his rights for Terminate, including a signature and fingerprints
by Bo Bendtsen, author of Terminate, kindly ask him to prove this by
faxing you a copy of the contract, including the "signature". We would
be most interested in seeing this curious document as well since it has
never been signed by the author of Terminate and the alleged signature
must be a forgery.

Thank you for your support in this matter.

Dietmar Kneidl / mediacom - USA

(Dietmar Kneidl is CEO of mediacom - USA, the exclusive distributors of
Terminate in the United States of America. He can be reached by voice at
(510) 521-2833, by Fax at (510) 521-5019 and by Netmail at 1:161/820.)

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

DEAR MADAM EMILIA 1:221/194

Q: Where are you, i'm waiting! You are always late.

A: I'll be there e-mediately, i'm downstairs getting some shiraz
whine to prepare misself for having to talk with YOU again.

Q: I think you are an insensitive dork for ignoring Jesse Thurin's
well stated complaints about the snooz being cumbersome for blind
people to read.

A: Oh. sigh. I suppose it might be a good idea to accompany ascii
art with text descriptions of it, so that when the visual ascii
stuff is stripped out by various available programs, then blind
people do not have to completely miss the pictures. I'm sorry i
didn't think of that before. Some people have submitted ascii art
with text descriptions and i was too stupid to understand why.

Q: You should call the Apology line: 1-212-255-7714 and talk to
Mr. Apology, or at least read his publication. It fulfills the social
void left when people stopped believing that holy water and kneeling
to light candles could work wonders. It's sort of a cross between Mad
Magazine and Man Ray. ISSN 1069-028X .

A: Spew. You're such a little hobbly-knob. Go dye your hair
blonde again. Besides, i don't have to deal with complaints anymore
because Rick Moen is doing that, and it's much more difficult to get
under his skin than mine, as fas as i know anyway <implicit begging>.

Q: Why are you still doing this? You haven't even mailed your
comix yet, you haven't ever set up a BBS, you still think you can run
Puppy on a regular Dos machine and you can't even remember what's in
policy 4.

A: Becuase i like it and no-one has tried hard enough to take it
away yet. Besides, i can't leave my office until the Reverend
Visage comes back. He's lost.

FidoNews 11-50 Page: 12 12 Dec 1994

Q: He is not.

A: He is so.

Q: He is not.

A: Stop that. You sound like a policy complaint. May Frank Zappa
haunt your dreams like a broken record: specifically, the breaking
of the world record for number of hours of endurance of being
lapidated by helium-inflated policy weenies while bound by a leather
strop soaked in Glenfiddich.

Q: I _like_ policy. Several people are working day and night
attempting to revise policy for the purpose of making life easier.
Policy is like planning, like adhering to geometry while
constructing sculptures. If you ignore policy, the sky falls or at
least the sculpture goes SPLAT, and you have no legal recourse and a
big mess to cleanse.

A: What if i don't want legal recourse; huh, eh, quoi? I have a
gun. And i have a brain. I do not need laws. Laws just get in the
way. Legalisms are like parking tickets on the info-super-thingy.

Q: My brain is better than your brain.

A: It is not.

Q: It is so.

A: Stop that again! I hate this bickering, when statements are
hurled back and forth with nothing augmenting them, with no changes
in-between. I'm fed up with attempts to shut people up, rather than
real arguments about technical and freedom-of-speech details which
i don't entirely understand yet but which i admire greatly because
getting the mail around is THE issue.

Q: No.

A: i Thank you. That was better. That was pure.

Q: What do you have to say about the recent debate in Computer
Underground Digest about "Must Emily learn to Spell in a 20/20
world" (at least i think that was what the thread was labelled)?

A: Here, have some shiraz, make yourself at home, i'm going to
lecture you again.

The so-called three "R"s have been been insisted upon by
various educational institutions since Calvin decided that a ruler
was for rapping knuckles and that truth could be measured by degrees.

Yes, the ease of representing a statement with little white
letters on a screen is a consideration valid for some employers and
other purveyors of culture-as-stasis. However, the challenge of
fully using text to exemplify a scream, of rage or angst or benign
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 13 12 Dec 1994

bliss or whichever alive thought or feeling you need to communicate
towards another soul, another soul made amorphous and receptive
across the wire, is at once sublime and twisted. Rules of grammar
and spelling are rules.

Syntax is not a rule-based system. Syntax is an intuituive
system requiring only sensual aptitude for construction or
understanding. If one insists upon "readin', writin' and 'rithmetic"
in it's traditional and rule-based, ruler-enforced formats, then the
possible _forms_ of syntax are limited. Even lawyers know this
basic fact. That's why nice lawyers make laws which can be
convoluted into desired meanings [the U.S. wire-tap leaglists were
NOT nice to us (computerists) and we're NOT that stupid].

The electronic media, especially within Fidonet which is
simplified and streamlined to accommodate as many machines and
budgets as possible, is not "page" dependent, it is screen
dependent. One writes messages on a screen, of forty characters or
eighty characters, with the plain ascii set as tools. Why limit
this tool set with an unnecessary reverence for grade school?

It seems to moi that Jorge Luis Borges could be looked upon
as a stylistic mentor for Fidonet messaging, as most of his writings
are of a length that would fit in the specified message format
(thankyou Randy whomever you are). [footnote: "the Lottery In
Babylon" by Borges is relevent. addendum: (note irreverence for
spatial orientation and spewing bletch at manuals of style)
"Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!"]

Fidonet messages are brief, therefore necessarily terse, in
comparison with traditional academic forms of writing. Somewhat
like articles in journals of long standing, echomail messages are
written to a familiar readership with shared interests and flammable
cerebellums. Instead of being limited to monthly edited [read
"cencored"] publications, Fidonet messages are published as quickly
as they can be read, and beg responses from everyone rather than a
selected group. Fidonet "groups" select themselves.

I'e been reviewing, over the last years, Tom Jenning's
statement explaining e-space, that went something like "everyone in
one big room, equally armed, and no casualties". At first this image
seemed like a flame echo, presuming nastiness and preponderance of egos.
Now, i think i get it. Maybe. But e.e.cummings, who BTW does not
employ proper grammar or spelling, said it better than i could, but
not as well as Tom Jennings already did by inventing net culture:

INTRODUCTION
[to "THE ENORMOUS ROOM" by e.e.cummings,
copyright 1922 by Boni and Liveright, Inc.]

Don't be afraid.
-But I've never seen a picture you painted or read
a word you wrote-
So What?
So you're thirty-eight?
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 14 12 Dec 1994

Correct.
And have only jsut finished your second novel?
Socalled.
Entitled ee-eye-em-eye?
Right.
And pronounced?
"A" as in a, "me" as in me; accent on the "me".
Signifying?
Am.
How does Am compare with The Enormous Room?
Favorably.
They're not at all similar, are they?
When the Enormous Room was published, some people
wanted a war book.; they were disappointed. When Eimi
was published, some people wanted Another Enormous
Room; they were disappointed.
Doesn't the Enormous Room really concern war?
It actually used war: to explore the inconceivable vast-
ness which is so unbelievabley far away that it appears
microscopic.
When you wrote this book, you were looking through
war at something very big and very far away?
When this book wrote itself, I was observing a negli-
gible portion of something incredibly more distant than
any sun; somehting more unimaginably huge than the
most prodigious of all universes-
Namely?
The individual.
---
You decide, of course. "readin', right-in, 'rithmetic", or...

"rage, rant, reveal".

-s&m
----------------------------------------------------------------------

AreaTags problem in region28

From: Melle Koning (2:281/714.14)

Hello FNEWS!

A message to the appointed Z2EC.

See You!
Melle
PS: Could you please sent me a mail back if you received this msg? Thanks!

======================================================================
* Forwarded by Melle Koning (2:281/701.29)
* Area : NETMAIL (FastEcho Netmail Area)
* From : Melle Koning, 2:281/714.14 (Monday November 28 1994 01:20)
* To : Jens Mueller, 2:24/24
* Subj : AreaTags problem in region28
======================================================================
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 15 12 Dec 1994

Hydiho Jens!

As you know, region28 of Zone2 consists off some overlapping nets. This
is allowed by a former Z2C, and the situation hasn't changed since. We
can live with that. :-)

However; We at The White Room (2:281/714) now like to connect to more
than 1 Cost Sharing Organisation for region28 area's. :-) There are more
area's which seem to be fun and usefull for us than the area's of just
the CSO which we are currently connected to.

The problem is that "on both sides", sometimes the area's share the same
name! That means that with the software we are currently running we
cannot connect to some area's because of the areatag, which have
different sites of distribution while they have the same areaname. (all
with the extension of .028)

There seem to be some other nodes who share the same kind of problem in
this region. We like to connect to more than one CSO, but the CSO's are
not willing to change the areanames.

I've asked the managers of the CSO's if it would be possible to change
the areanames, but neither of them is willing to do so. (Too much of a
hassle) The R28EC is not willing to do anything about this problem, he
does not even want to advise the managers of the CSO's to change the
areanames of the region.

Could you as Z2EC do anything about this? Maybe at least advise the
different Cost Sharing Organisations of this problem? Thank you very
much in advance! :-)

Cya,
Melle (Cosysop TWR)

Subject: AreaTags problem in region28 (PART II)

Hydiho FNEWS!

Answer from the Z2EC, everything seems to go okay.

Mvg,
Melle

��------
� Doorgestuurd door Melle Koning (2:281/701.29)
� Area : NETMAIL (FastEcho Netmail Area)
� Van : Jens Mueller, 2:24/24 (Dinsdag 29 November 1994 12:56)
� Aan : Melle Koning
� Ondw : AreaTags problem in region28
��------
Hi Melle,

MK> The problem is that "on both sides", sometimes the area's share the
MK> same name! That means that with the software we are currently
MK> running we cannot
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 16 12 Dec 1994

MK> connect to some area's because of the areatag, which have different
MK> sites of distribution while they have the same areaname. (all with
MK> the extension
MK> of .028)

<sigh> I knew this would happen someday .....

Ok, I'll get back to Ronald about this. I know that I'm going to screw
up things a little bit, but with a little more foreseeing from the CSO's
this situation could have been prevented.

MK> There seem to be some other nodes who share the same kind of
MK> problem in this region. We like to connect to more than one CSO,
MK> but the CSO's are not willing to change the areanames.

I know. I have discussed this problem, in theroy, with Arjen Lentz a
while ago. At least, the problem was quite similar.

MK> Could you as Z2EC do anything about this? Maybe at least advise the
MK> different Cost Sharing Organisations of this problem? Thank you very
MK> much in advance! :-)

I hope I can be of help.

Btw, you forgot to mention wich CSO's are involved ...... I'm not sure
if I know them all <grin>. Those I know are ElCom (DCN/DFF),
TIPTOP (HCC), and net 512/1 (PCC).

Any others I forgot ? ;-)

See ya,
Jens

Internet: [email protected]

��-----

--- GoldED
* Origin: Blow the flow (2:281/701.29)

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

Aid For Ukrainian Students.

From: Rick Johnston

* Originally by Dave Stickney, 2:4635/4.21
* Originally to Rick Johnston, 1:12/0
* Originally dated 17 Nov 1994, 13:05

CC: David Garrett, Mark Lynch, Rick Johnston, Michael Walsh, Tim Pearson
CC: Marv Carson, D Dawson, Dallas Hinton, Larry Squire, B Davis
Dear Fellow Networker,
My name is David Stickney, I am the chief volunteer and organizer of the
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 17 12 Dec 1994

Center for American Aid and Assistance, Cherkassy Ukraine. We are a
non-profit organization that operates without payment for the
betterment of Ukraine through technical, democratic, and humanitarian
aid. One of our current goals is to aid the students in the local
schools by increasing the level of hardware they use to teach
programming and computer sciences. Currently the most advanced computer
center for student of hich school and college age is a room of 8088-286's
none of which have hard drives. Our goal is to update this equipment
through donations made by computer users who have old hardware that is
of little use to them now. Anything is better than nothing and
everything helps! Please aid our attempt by distributing this message
and request to as many nets and organizations as possible. Here is the
information that anyone may need.
Shipment of donated items will arrive in Ukraine in FEB 95 via
ship to Kiev Ukriane.
Shipping in the United States is being coordinated by:
Ukrainian-American Educational Exchange Assc.
PO BOX 116 Castle Creek NY 13744.
tel& fax 607-648-2224
[email protected]
Attn Ron Czebiniak

Contact in Ukraine can be made at:
The Center for American Aid and Assistance
222 Chevchenko KB #30
Cherkassy Ukraine 257000
tel (7) (0472) 47-56-69
fax 47-74-36

Thanks in advance.
Virtually
David Stickney

--- GoldED 2.42.G0614+
---
* Origin: Pure drivel tends to drive ordinary drivel off the echo
(1:229/2)

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

FNFILTER, a FidoNews Filter for Sight-Impaired Readers

by John Herro, 1:374/38.2

Recently there have been articles in Fight-O-News on both sides of the
question of whether the format of our newsletter should change to make
it easier for sight-impaired people to use a screen reader. I'm not
sight-impaired, thank God, but I believe there's a very simple solution
to the problem of reading FidoNews with a screen reader. I wrote the
following program in a few minutes - much less time than it takes to
tell about it. There are only 27 lines of code! I hope it helps. I
call the program FNFILTER.

FNFILTER prompts you for the four-digit ISSUE number. For example, for
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 18 12 Dec 1994

FIDO1150.NWS you would type 1150. It then reads the FidoNews file (in
this example FIDO1150.NWS) and produces a new text file TEMP.TMP. The
FidoNews "front page" with the dog and diskette is stripped away, as are
lines beginning with a Form Feed (header lines with the page number) and
lines that are all = or all - characters. You can then read TEMP.TMP
with a screen reader and then delete TEMP.TMP. The program won't delete
ASCII art embedded within an article, but for people using a screen
reader, TEMP.TMP should be a lot less exasperating to read than the
original file.

I do almost all of my programming in Ada, which in my opinion is the
very best programming language (I'm the author of a shareware Ada Tutor
program). However, for FNFILTER I used a language which is very
primitive by today's standards: GWBASIC. That language doesn't even
have block IFs! (Fortunately it does have WHILE loops!) I admit that
FNFILTER is very "quick and dirty," but I figure that almost everyone
has access to some form of Basic. FNFILTER should work on almost any
version of Basic: the QBASIC that comes with DOS, the GWBASIC that often
came with earlier versions of DOS, Visual Basic, Quick Basic, etc.
There are no references in FNFILTER to line numbers, so you can strip
the line numbers if your Basic allows.

FNFILTER is fragile in that changes in the format of FidoNews are likely
to "break" it. It assumes that the first article in FidoNews is
introduced by 30 spaces followed by the word "Editorial." If that
ceases to be true, FNFILTER is likely to abort attempting to read past
the end of file. FNFILTER also assumes that any line beginning with a
Form Feed is uninteresting and should be stripped. This will probably
continue to be true, but if FidoNews ever puts Form Feeds on lines by
themselves, FNFILTER will fail to strip the page header lines. Also,
any change in the way file names are chosen for our newsletter is almost
guaranteed to break FNFILTER.

However, even though FNFILTER makes assumptions that might change, I
tried to make it as easy to read and as easy to modify as possible
(given the primitive language). So if FNFILTER ever "breaks," you
should be able to fix it in a few minutes.

Unfortunately, I haven't given much thought to how a sight-impaired
user would read the prompt "Issue - four digits: " or read the message
"TEMP.TMP is ready for the screen reader." However, I assume that
sight-impaired users have already addressed the problem of interacting
with simple programs in text mode, perhaps by means of the screen
reader.

FNFILTER is not a model of efficiency. For example, I could have
combined lines 280 through 320 into one long statement - at the expense
of readability. However, throughout the program, wherever there was a
tradeoff between efficiency and readability, I tried always to opt for
readability. COMPUTERS are supposed to save PEOPLE time.

FNFILTER is probably worth exactly what you're paying for it, but I hope
it's a very simple solution to a problem that has caused controversy in
Fight-O-News.

100 'FidoNews Filter for Screen Readers John Herro 1:374/38.2
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 19 12 Dec 1994

110 'Public domain. No warranty. 05-DEC-1994
120 DEFINT A-Z
130 FALSE = 0
140 TRUE = NOT FALSE
150 FF$ = CHR$(12)
160 INPUT "Issue - four digits: ", ISSUE$
170 OPEN "FIDO" + ISSUE$ + ".NWS" FOR INPUT AS #1
180 OPEN "TEMP.TMP" FOR OUTPUT AS #2
190 'Skip front page and Table of Contents.
200 INPUT #1, TEXT$
210 WHILE TEXT$ <> SPACE$(30) + "Editorial"
220 LINE INPUT # 1, TEXT$
230 WEND
240 PRINT #2, TEXT$
250 'Reject lines that are all =, all -, or begin with Form Feed.
260 WHILE NOT EOF(1)
270 LINE INPUT #1, TEXT$
280 REJECT = FALSE
290 IF LEFT$(TEXT$, 1) = FF$ THEN REJECT = TRUE
300 IF TEXT$ = STRING$(LEN(TEXT$), "=") THEN REJECT = TRUE
310 IF TEXT$ = STRING$(LEN(TEXT$), "-") THEN REJECT = TRUE
320 IF NOT REJECT THEN PRINT #2, TEXT$
330 WEND
340 CLOSE
350 PRINT "TEMP.TMP is ready for the screen reader."
360 SYSTEM

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

InterSports
by Patrick McCoy 1:153/974

InterSports Sports-Oriented Amateur Computer Network.

Copyright (c) 1991-1994 Patrick McCoy
All Rights Reserved

InterSports was formed on September 12, 1991 as a link between a
bunch of sports nuts. Since that time we have expanded to include
many nodes throughout North America.

The main reason people join networks is to obtain access to the
information contained in the ECHOs of the network. InterSports
serves one purpose: SPORTS! =) And we are dedicated to expansion.
Whether you be in New York City, Cuba, or Antartica, you are welcome
in InterSports!

InterSports Administrative Echoes

IS.ADMIN - *C Echo
** IS.CANADA - InterSports Canadian SysOp Echo
* IS.SNEC - InterSports General SysOp Echo.
** IS.USA - InterSports USA SysOp Echo

FidoNews 11-50 Page: 20 12 Dec 1994

InterSports InterNational BACKBONE EchoMail Areas

IS.BASEBALL - Baseball Discussion Echo
IS.BASKETBALL - Basketball Discussion Echo
IS.BRE - Baron Realms Elite League #102 Echo
IS.CARDS.&.LOTTO - Sports Cards and Lotteries Discussion Echo
IS.CHATTER - General Chatter Echo
IS.FANTASY - Fantasy Sports and Dream Team Discussions
IS.FISHING - Fishing And Outdoors Discusion Echo
IS.FOOTBALL - Football Discussion Echo
IS.GENERAL - Other Sports Related Items Echo
IS.HOCKEY - Hockey Discussion Echo
IS.MOTOR.SPORTS - Motor Sports Discussion Echo
IS.OLYMPICS - Olympic/World Games Discussion Echo
IS.PAINTBALL - Paintballing Echo
IS.REC.SPORTS - Recreational Sports (golf, swimming, etc.) Echo
IS.SKIING - Skiing Discussion Echo
IS.SOCCER - Soccer Discussion Echo
IS.WATERSPORTS - Water Sports Discussion Echo
IS.WRESTLING - Wrestling Discussion Echo

For more information, contact:

Patrick McCoy Jeff Binkley
ZC InterSports Canada - or - ZC InterSports USA
1:153/974 1:226/600

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

Wheelsnet Article

From: Warren Davis 1:3672/1)

Wheelsnet is a relatively new network that was formed on a local
basis but has quickly expanded. Wheelsnet is a user involved net
where the actual users are allowed to moderate and help make decisions.
The net was originally formed at Wild Wheels Late Nite BBS (Dalton, GA)
but isnow being maintained by Warren Davis of The Patriot BBS
(Chatsworth, GA). The following is a list of the conferences currently
available:

Conference Name E-Mail Tag
=============== ==========
Technical Help WH-TECH_HLP
Politics In General WH-POLITICS
Chats./Dalton (Local) WH-CHATS/DALT
Jokes WH-JOKES
For Sale WH-FORSALE
BRE Discussions WH-BRE
Chit-Chat WH-CHITCHAT
Flame Wars WH-FLAME
Hobbies WH-HOBBIES
Local News WH-NEWS
Moderators Chat (PVT) WH-MODERATE
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 21 12 Dec 1994

Movie Reviews WH-MOVIES
N.W.G.C.U.G. (Local) WH-NWGCUG
Shiznit Monthly WH-SHIZNIT
Sports In General WH-SPORTS
Wheelsnet Admin. (PVT) WH-ADMIN
You Are a Redneck If.. WH-YARN
Z�rp! Awards (TEMP) WH-TMP-ZARP

We are planning to add more conferences as the net expands. If anyone
is interested in obtaining Wheelsnet please contact:

Warren Daivs (Wheelsnet Host)
At: 1:3672/1 (Soon to be 1:3672/0)
- or -
At: The Patriot BBS (706) 695-8757
- or -
FREQ: WN.ZIP for full information and policy from 1:3672/1

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

blind sysops
From: Tim Spofford (1:105/99)

Jesse Tharin is right on the money with his comments about formatting
in the snooze. I don't know about Waterloo but in just this one little
net in which I currently reside we've got at least six blind sysops or
points that I happen to know about, and there are undoubtedly more that
I'm unaware of. He raised a valid point. Rather than dismiss it (or
diss it?), and patronizing him and every one of your blind readers in
the process, you might consider starting over by addressing the issue
with a bit of editorial responsibility and social maturity.

Yours for communication...

Tim Spofford
Sysop, Recovery Northwest
1:105/99
email: [email protected]

CC: Sylvia Maxwell, Jesse Tharin

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

ya snooze, ya lose

from: Jeff Dubois (1:163/266)

Dear editor,

I was very disappointed with your editorial in FidoNews 11-47 and your
insensitivity towards Jesse Therin and his concerns over accessing the
Snooze using a voice synthesizer.
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 22 12 Dec 1994

I would have thought you would have extended a little more courtesy and
understanding towards the very valid concerns Mr. Therin brought to your
attention. As a voice synthesis user myself, I can assure you there is
absolutely nothing inconsequential about his concerns and the use of
ascii art in the Snooze.

I was a bit disappointed that instead of offering Mr. Therin some
suggestions or possibile methods of solving his dilemna, you instead
chose to dismiss them simply by suggesting ascii art was the "haiku" of
computer graphics and that, in fact, you liked them so much that you
were considering getting an ascii art tattoo on your, er, um, ankle.

Many of the popular voice synthesis programmes allow the user to toggle
many of the characters commonly used in ascii art. You may have
suggested to Mr. Therin that he check to see if his software supported
this option, in which case he could simply avoid having these unnecessary
characters from being spoken.

Of course, there exists the possibility that his software does not have
this feature, however it is my experience that most of the more recent
and popular ones do, in which case there are other alternatives. The
ascii art header on the Snooze for all intensive purposes (with the
exception of the volume, issue and date) is a constant. You may have
offered Mr. Therin a method of removing these lines from the text and
the line feeds with a batch file and the use of utilities such as HEAD
and STRIP. Of course, you could have even used subtle humour
suggesting that he would likely find a stripper in his area, but he may
have a little more difficulty getting head.

In my interpretation of your editorial comments, you appeared to simply
dismiss Mr. Therin's concerns as inconsequential, which, in my opinion,
has added insult to injury.

I would hope that after you have received this note you would, at a
very minimum, contact Mr. Therin and make an attempt to help him solve
his problem, rather than simply dismiss it.

Regards,
Jeff Dubois

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

Some remarks
by Dirk Ohme, 2:246/2001.9, [email protected] (Internet)

First of all let me thank Donald and Sylvia for offering
us excellent FidoNews.

To Bill Dirks, 1:385/17
refers to Fidonet Echo Security Part II

> Use unique passwords for each area and each system.

FidoNews 11-50 Page: 23 12 Dec 1994

It's easy to say such thing, but I don't think it's that easy
to do so. I know nodes having account to various nets - if they
would follow your sugestion they had to have either a good
fantasy or use a system in generating the passwords. On both ways
it's probably that way they use a sheet of paper to "save the
passwords". Sure, your sugestion is right okay, but I don't think
you only should rely to this.
IMHO it's better to keep the wires hot to the uplink, too.

> secure inbound areas.

Secure inbounds are great - if the tosser support them too :-O
On the other hand it should be mentioned, to write the complete
(un)packer path to the tosser's configuration since there was one
attempt in hacking BBS by sending a ARJ-packed mail bundle and a
file named ARJ.EXE, which contained Norton's WipeDisk ...

To Tom Rightmer, 1:385/0
refers to Gutter Language In FidoNews

> sexual material, profanity, gutter language

I don't understand why Americans on one hand proclaim the right
of free speech, on the other hand censor others. I do understand
that there is a limit in what one says. But does that implicits
a clean, high-level conversation ? I don't think so.

> I fail to understand why this is necessary in a
> publication of this type,

Maybe because we are all different ( ;-) ), i.e. there are
workers next to teachers in FidoNet.

> especially when you consider that children will be
> reading this garbage.

These children often get the language by computer games or TV.
I don't think Fido is the one and only to blame for this,
especially such a high-sophisticated newspaper like the FidoNews
;-)
On the other hand: What does a children think when reading a
nodes or sysop conference ? Ever read such conferences ? Well,
I don't think the language here is that bad at all ...

> What's next after "Dominatrix"?

Okay, here in Germany the Coca Cola company use the work
"unkaputtnix" (not able to be broken) in comercials. Nice thing
since this word was unknown to the german language before. Should
one now blame Coca Cola for bashing the german language ? ;->

> "Daddy, what is a dominatrix?"

Or ever heard a children returning from Kindergarten or school
where it heared a new strange word ?
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 24 12 Dec 1994

I don't think it's good keeping children from this. Better you
sit down with your child and try to explain the meaning of the
word. Then you can be sure the child has understood the word.

> (1) clean up FidoNews so that it can be read by children;

Sorry for this: Reading node conferences let me think there are
only* children in Fido ;-)))

> (3) make two versions of FidoNews, one g-rated and one for
> adults only, and allow each net to decide which version
> they distribute.

Oh yeah ! And what about the other countrys ? Do we get a censored
version or the original one ?

> I doubt that intelligent people need gutter language

I think intelligent people should be wise enough to teach their
children in a way that they could handle this.

So long,
-+- Dirk -+-

PS: Sorry for making mistakes in my letter (if there are), but
english is not my native language.

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

Press Release - Stop Moosaphobia now!

Paul J. Henry, 1:221/279@fidonet

The following piece arrived in my \publish\this\now directory this
morning. Considering that the last time I disobeyed a directive of Deer
Nation!, I had several non-functioning copies of WinCaribou '95
(functioning/non-functioning, semantics I say) dumped on my lawn.

=-*-=
PRESS RELEASE

DEER NATION! Join the fight for Moose Rights! Stop Moosaphobia now!

09/DEC/94

We here at DEER NATION! were dismayed to learn that that bastion of
Free Speech, Fi-Doe_News had allowed a piece of moosaphobia to enter its
hallowed pages. As unimpressed as we were, we still respect Free Speech
(though some of our more militant units might yet staple some non-
functioning HSTs to their front door) and have written this piece to set
the record straight.

In F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.48 (28-Nov-1994), in the
article entitled "Dear Reverend Visage," Doc Logger wrote, "We *still*
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 25 12 Dec 1994

haven't heard from Satti (cue the plague of moose). . ." Never has a
piece of Moosaphobia cut so deep -- "plague of moose", indeed!

DEER NATION! has put together a fund, as a form of penance if you
will, and will be sending Mr. Logger a trip voucher to Mooseton, NWT.
Mooseton, one of the farthest reaching moose settlements (north of Moose
Factory that is) is a haven for peace loving meese everywhere. Even our
reindeer friends from war-torn Greenland are known to visit on occasion.
We think a week of swigging MooseHead and trudging thru ten-foot
snowdrifts will be enough to convince Mr. Logger that a good moose is a
friendly moose. (Don't eat the yellow snow.)

So the next time you see the friendly mug of a moose and the words
"XING", remember, "Brake for a Moose, it could save your life!"

Stanton McMoose
Online Moose Activist
DEER NATION!
1:221/279.10@fidonet

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

Fido speed

From: Brian Landel (1:157/409)

Dear FidoNews,

(If this is included in FidoNews, please do not hesitate to edit this
article)

Fidonet is an amazing network. Since most people with modems
have access to it, netmail can be sent to almost anyone with a computer
and modem. The one thing Fidonet could improve upon however is the
speed of routed netmail. I have seen routed netmail take up to a month
to reach it's destination. Maybe a new rule should be made saying that
all Fido systems must poll their uplink at least twice a day, and make
another ZMH. Although many sysops will probably be upset that they have
to block their users out for yet ANOTHER hour, it may be very effective
in increasing the speed of netmail/echomail.

Brian Landel
1:157/409

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

From: Ryan Watson (1:2440/2)

In response to Tom Rightmer's article about "Gutter Language in
FidoNews" I'd like to say that I agree. I think his suggestions are
right on the ball. I did however see that he failed to mention
another option which is to limit the age of FidoNet Sysops to atleast
18 years of age. Personally I think this is one of the only ways in
which to distribute all of the material that goes through FidoNet
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 26 12 Dec 1994

without the threat of litigation. My spelling may not be right on,
but at least I think people are getting the idea.

Sure, I have no problem with points being young, but I do have a
problem with the many boards in existance that continually go out of
existance because they are started by kids who are running it on
their allowance. While I think that kids should have every right to
run BBS's and also that I think it's a great gesture towards the
community in which they live, I fail to see why this is necesary.

There is also a solution like what Tom said about limiting access
to risque echos and file areas. For example, why does a minor need
or get access to the "DFN_ADULT" file echo? Perhaps also we could
mention "FLAME" that's a message echo that sees its fair share of
loose moraled tongues.

I'm not a morally correct person always, I certainly talk like a
sailor when I am in the mood, however being a parent I can tell you
for certain that I don't want my daughter exposed to this sort of
thing.

As Tom said, any responses to this article can be sent to either
1:2440/2 or 1:2440/180.

R. Matthew Watson (BVFD Unit #1821)

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

Secure sessions

From: Mike Lenker (1:106/1776)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

I'm not a regular Fidonews reader, so I don't know how long the topic of
secured sessions has been current in the 'Snooze. But I just noticed a
recommendation to "establish session passwords with every system from
which you accept mail" or words to that effect.

I am the region 19 SecureMail distributor. Since there are only a few
net-level SecureMail distributors, this means that I may have to call
almost any Fidonet system in the region with mail that someone has
chosen to send to that address via the SecureMail system. While it's
okay with me for the receiving sysop to put mail from me in a special
area for manual processing, if the system does not accept mail from me
at all, I'm screwed. My system will try to call several times, long
distance, and get hangups, incurring phone charges. Eventually, I will
bounce the mail back to its origin (per SecureMail rules) but only after
some delay and expense.

I assume that any of the other regional SecureMail distributors would
have the same problem.

[I know there has been at least one Fidonews article about SecureMail in
FidoNews 11-50 Page: 27 12 Dec 1994

the past, but to review for sporadic readers like me, here is the
SecureMail concept in a nutshell: SecureMail sysops are Fidonet sysops
who agree to handle private netmail without reading it, and to forward
it via other SecureMail hosts. This implies, among other things, that
they do not object to encrypted traffic, since they would have no way to
know that it is happening.]

So, if you set up your system not to accept mail at all via unsecured
systems, please look up your regional SecureMail host (flagged in the
nodelist as RSMH or URSMH) and set up a session password with him/her.
Or, if you are lucky enough to have a SecureMail net host in your net
(usually flagged as NSMH or UNSMH), do likewise. It might help you get
some mail you might not expect. Thanks.

[email protected]

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--- GenMsg [0101]
Via 1:216/21@fidonet @19941204.210721.10.UTC Itrack

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

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

Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar
Tom Jennings
"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)

more addresses:
The Fido Phool -- 1:125/27
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Rev. Richard Visage -- 1:163/150
Don -- 1:221/192, [email protected]
Tim -- [email protected]

(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews
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FidoNews 11-50 Page: 28 12 Dec 1994

voice: (519) 570-3137

Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
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Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
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-- END
----------------------------------------------------------------------