GopherProxy

F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 48 (30 November 1992)
A newsletter of the |
FidoNet BBS community | Published by:
_ |
/ \ | "FidoNews" BBS
/|oo \ | +1-415-863-2739
(_| /_) | NEW!--> 1:1/23@FidoNet
_`@/_ \ _ | [email protected]
| | \ \\ |
| (*) | \ )) | Editors:
|__U__| / \// | Tom Jennings
_//|| _\ / | Tim Pozar
(_/(_|(____/ |
(jm) | Newspapers should have no friends.
| -- JOSEPH PULITZER
----------------------------+---------------------------------------

/*********************************************************************
* IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address for FidoNews has been changed. *
* The new address is: *
* *
* FidoNews = 1:1/23 *
* *
* Starting January 1993 email sent to the old address will not be *
* forwarded! You were warned! *
*********************************************************************/

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 ..................................................... 1
IMPORTANT NOTICE: CHANGE OF ADDRESS ........................... 1
Editorial: CHANGE OF ADDRESS .................................. 1
2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 2
The Great Fidonet Election Fraud .............................. 2
Ask not what you can do ....................................... 4
3% discount on Fidosnooze back-issues ......................... 4
YAP Yet another policy ........................................ 6
PreRapture International Message Exchange (PRIME) ............. 7
3. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 9
FidoNews 9-48 Page 1 30 Nov 1992

======================================================================
EDITORIAL
======================================================================

FidoNews has a new address within FidoNet: 1:1/23. Email addressed to
the old address will be forwarded to the current, new address until
January 1993. This change takes effect IMMEDIATELY.

The reason is the incredible amount of email sent to 1:1/1 by poorly
designed FidoNet mailers, sysops not paying attention, bad
installations, and the occasional user error. Zone1-net1-node1 seems
to be the "default address" for many programs when they get confused.
It has sometimes taken weeks to get the responsible sysop to stop
daily echotosses numbering in the hundreds of messages per week,
improperly sent to the old FidoNews address.

Starting January 1993, you'll see mailer, echo-toss and other FidoNet
email related tools generating error messages (because the old
"default" address won't exist in the nodelist!) rather than annoying
the FidoNews Editor. Good riddance!

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

Editorial: CHANGE OF ADDRESS

by Tom Jennings (1:1/23)

Please note that FidoNews has a new FidoNet network address, 1:1/23,
zone 1, region 1, node 23 -- twenty-three. Mail to the old address
will be forward through the end of the year, then it will be CUT OFF.

Why may you ask go through this painful process? Because of all the
bogus mail I get, incorrectly addressed to numerically unique "1:1/1"
by LOUSY SOFTWARE and INATTENTIVE SYSOPS. Some weeks, I get
multiple-hundreds of messages, usually echomail tosses, and destined
for some interesting destination I'm sure, but are dropped in my
machine by bad routing.

Well soon I'll have my revenge, as starting 1 January 1993 there won't
BE a "1:1/1" in the nodelist, and all those sysops will notice, and
hopefully they'll complain to the (mumble) program authors.

But in the mean time, please change all of your records to indicate
the new address, effective IMMEDIATELY!

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

FidoNews 9-48 Page 2 30 Nov 1992

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

by Phillip Dampier
1:2613/228

Since I joined Fidonet in 1988, I have been unable to understand the
mortal fear that many in this network have about instituing democracy.

I've heard all the excuses that many have offered to explain away the
need for democracy in a network that now contains over 20,000 nodes.
They've been as flimsy as the recent decision to annoint a new Zone
Coordinator from among the "all-knowing."

God forbid that Fidonet elections turn into "popularity contests," as
we have heard time and time again as an excuse to keep voting to a
minimum.

This is an excuse used recently by Fidel Castro and the Glorious Leader
Kim Il-Sung of North Korea; it should not be one to prevent free and
fair elections in Fidonet.

Just as these unpopular leaders know that they stand little chance of
winning back their posts in a free and open election, many of the "good
ole boys" in Fidonet realize they don't have a prayer of winning
re-election after the kind of "leadership" they have offered.

So, in lieu of elections, we have excuses.

"It would be too complicated to hold elections for every position in
Fidonet, from HC to IC."

Administering a network with over 15,000 people in it is no problem,
but allowing many of those nodes to cast ballots for those that
represent them is apparently too much to fathom by some. Maybe
those people see it as too much work for no personal gain.

Well folks, that dog don't hunt.

For years, we've heard the lip service from our own "Glorious Leaders"
telling us that democracy is on the way, just wait a LITTLE longer.
With the recent decision to annoint a new ZC for Zone 1 from within the
family, we'll be waiting longer for democracy in Fidonet than the
French wait for fine wine.

Make no mistake. The biggest insult of all is to post a want-ad for
the position in the nodelist segment in the first place. After all,
99% of those that receive that file have no chance to run for the
position, much less vote on it.

FidoNews 9-48 Page 3 30 Nov 1992

What we are waiting for, fellow nodes, is for a new Fidonet Pope to be
chosen. One that our "Glorious Leaders" have handpicked for their
known cowtowin... I mean, SERVICE... yeah, SERVICE to the guiding,
"time-honored" principles of Fidonet.

Why? Because we all know and trust our "Glorious Leaders" to decide
what is best for us. These people have connections...err... to the
heartbeat of Fidonet.

All humor aside, elections of the kind now being prepared by our
"Glorious Leaders" can still be found in Cuba, North Korea, Laos,
Zaire, and other countries which offer up candidates that belong to
hack organizations or are groomed for the post by a group of
kingmakers.

In this country, we used to use "means tests" to keep classes of people
from casting ballots in elections. Today, we recognize those practices
as patently undemocratic and unfair, except in Fidonet where we call
it "efficiency."

The only hidden blessing in all of this is the newly set precedent that
Policy can be ignored when it suits your own purposes. If you want to
implement something not in Policy, just "add" it long enough to make
the changes you want in the network.

We, as individual nodes, can begin demanding some additions of our own,
starting with free and open elections for the Zone Coordinator among
all the nodes that are served by that person.

How do you go about doing this?

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Find out who your friends are.
Start by finding out your Region Coordinator's position on democracy.
Is he/she willing to stand for elections? Is he/she willing to offer
up their own amendments to Policy 4 which insist on free
and open elections?

If the answer is no, or if you get still more lip service, you've just
identified part of the problem. Next, inform the masses by sending
in your replies to Fidonews. Let's ALL know who the real friends of
Fidonet are. Then, we can begin identifying those who are being
groomed for future positions of power in this network, and work hard
to break the chain of the Good Ole Boy network.

Since individual nodes can't have their own THROW THE BUMS OUT
movement because they can't vote, they can at least put the pressure
on these people by bombarding them with netmail insisting on change,
until they get so sick and tired of hearing about it, they relent.

Fidonet is about people, in LOCAL COMMUNITIES, working together to
make Fidonet something worthwhile. It's not about bureaucrats who
live hundreds of miles away telling us what is best. Let's put
the power back in the hands of individual nodes.

FidoNews 9-48 Page 4 30 Nov 1992

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

From: [email protected] (Bruce F. Webster)

AP news item in today's San Diego Union:

Headline: "CIA chief hints change needed in ban on probing Americans"

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON--CIA Director Robert Gates says changes might be needed in
the U.S. law that forbids the agency from collecting information about
Americans or U.S. companies.

Such changes might enable the CIA to better support the Justice
Department and other law enforcement agencies, he said in an interview
with the Associated Press.

The idea grew out of a recent storm of accusations by Democrats in
Congress, Justice Department officials and a federal judge that the
CIA withheld information in the case of $5.5 billion lending scheme to
Iraq by an Atlanta bank.

..

Under current law, the CIA is strictly forbidden to collect
information on Americans or American companies.

"At some point it seems to me, very early on, we and Justice...and the
Congress are going to have to...have some sort of serious discussion
about whether there are changes in the law that are needed that will
clarify some of the ambiguities and what we can and cannot do in
support to law enforcement," Gates said.

He did not elaborate.

..

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

By Joe Jared of 1:125/1212

Due to the fact that yet another better AND faster file
compressor is now available, Requests for newsletter issues
now have a different extention. The file that created the
'.SQZ' files is requestable by a magic name of "SQZ" to
anyone interested. For this year's issues all issues are
available in Squeeze-It format only.

FidoNews 9-48 Page 5 30 Nov 1992

The signature for Sqz files is as follows for dos platforms:
Offset 0000h
48h 4Ch 53h 51h 5Ah

Here is a comparison between Previous issues of fidonews
compressed with ARJ, and then with Squeeze-it. There are no
file comments in any files.

FNEWS_84.ARJ 51633
FNEWS_85.ARJ 622575
FNEWS_86.ARJ 973142
FNEWS_87.ARJ 1013194
FNEWS_88.ARJ 1011393
FNEWS_89.ARJ 1196853
FNEWS_90.ARJ 963937
FNEWS_91.ARJ 1142017
8 file(s) 6974744 bytes
FNEWS_84.SQZ 46438
FNEWS_85.SQZ 612574
FNEWS_90.SQZ 945676
FNEWS_86.SQZ 945864
FNEWS_88.SQZ 986408
FNEWS_87.SQZ 991644
FNEWS_91.SQZ 1091178
FNEWS_89.SQZ 1168686
8 file(s) 6788468 bytes

Squeeze-It is a bit on the primate side, but the issues in
selecting an appropriate compression method are $$$ and $$$.
Personally, I find that Squeeze-It is much less annoying
than any other compressor, and all of my filebase is now in
that format. The new format will cut 3% off of your
requests for these issues, and although it isn't much, it's
still a savings somewhere. In comparison to other software,
I find the author to be about the least annoying. I define
annoying by how much the author hassles for registrations.
No 'time bomb', all features that exist work, and next
payday he'll be getting his $30.00US dollars for
registration.

Strengths:
Speed and compression. (As compared to.ARJ and LHA)

Weaknesses:
Not enough features. Recursive directory compression
exists, but there is no provision for moving files.
This new compressor is an unknown, which means most of your
archive recognition utilities wont work. However, There is
at least one configurable utility that will work, and it's
pd software. PolyXarc, by Jeffrey Nonken.

FidoNews 9-48 Page 6 30 Nov 1992

One final note: The owners of the copywrite of Spaz
recently gave me permission to release a new version that
supports Squeeze-it format. It should be available from
your local SDS site soonly, and it has a couple more
features. [-L] to list the contents of the archive, and one
less bug. Spaz is available by file request as SPAZ, and
freqing spaz will always get you the latest version.

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

by Roland Gautschi
2:30/0, 2:301/501

After all this 'policy' proposals I'd created the following. Now I
ask you: why not use this as our FidoNet guideline? Maybe this could
replace our outdated policy 4 document....

----------------------------------- cut ----------------------------
FidoNet Organization Rules

1. Definition of FidoNet

FidoNet is a worldwide computer network, allowing humans to
communicate with others. All members of FidoNet are listed in the
FidoNet nodelist.

2. Technical requirements

The technical requirements are defined in documents called
FTS-xxxx.ext (xxxx is a number from 0001 to 9999).

3. Organization of FidoNet

A nodenumber has 4 main parts: Zone:Net/Node.Point

- Zones are cut into Regions
- Regions are cut into Nets
- Nets can use HUB's to serve Nodes
- Nodes are systems in a Net
- Points are connected to Nodes

FidoNet has one International Coordinator (IC)
Each Zone has a Zone Coordinator (ZC).
Each Region has a Region Coordinator (RC).
Each Net has a Net Coordinator (NC).

A sysop is a systemoperator of one or more nodes.

The task of a *C is to compile the nodelist-segment of his area,
FidoNews 9-48 Page 7 30 Nov 1992

and to count votes if elections are held.

4. Elections

- A *C is elected by a simple majority of the received votes of the
sysops below his area.
- Each sysop has one vote (even if he operates more than one node).
- *C's are sysops and have no votes. They only count votes.
- Each *C sum up the votes of the *C below, except the NC who counts
the votes of the sysop.
- Elections are held by a sysop which is not a candidates.

IC election: Elected is, who receives the most votes of FidoNet.
ZC election: Elected is, who receives the most votes of the zone.
RC election: Elected is, who receives the most votes of the region.
NC election: Elected is, who receives the most votes of the net.

Each *C will be reelected at least every two years.
If a *C fails his duties for more than 4 weeks he'll be replaced.

5. How to get a nodenumber

Each human gets a nodenumber, if is he is able to operate a system
which meets the technical requirements above.

6. Responsibilities of a node

A node must follow this rules:

1) Thou shalt not excessively annoy others.
2) Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed.
3) Thou shalt not violate the law in your country.

7. Removing a node

A node will be removed from the nodelist, if more than 50% of the
sysops in his net decides to exclude him.
----------------------------------- cut ----------------------------

Sorry for the native English, but we here in Switzerland normally don't
use this language. Any corrections are welcome!

Roland

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

Steve Winter
98:98/1

Please spread this info around. Thanks!!

FidoNews 9-48 Page 8 30 Nov 1992

'The sun never sets on the PRIME network'
-={ PreRapture(tm) International Message Exchange }=-
USA, HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, BELGIUM, RUSSIA, BULGARIA, PORTUGAL,
CANADA, GERMANY, AFRICA and growing.

* Both Religious (Christian) and non-religious conferences. *
A wholesome, family oriented network with a strict policy
against profanity, lewdness, obscenity etc..
Features echos on educational and technical topics.
* Home of HOLY_BIBLE, the only Christian echo on the FidoNet backbone *
* Elaborate Bible Discussion and Debate * False Preachers Exposed *
919-286-3962 * 919-286-3606 * 919-286-3266 * 919-286-4617
Using USRobotics Dual Standard Modems HST 16800 / V.32bis 14400
* FREQ PRIME.ZIP from 98:98/1 or 1:227/150@FidoNet for network kit *

This should work as a private nodelist (PreRapture BBS was illegally
dropped from the FidoNet nodelist by corrupt FidoNet officials) :

Zone,98,PRIME_IC,USA,Steve_Winter,1-919-286-3962,9600,CM,HST,V32b,UIC
,1,PreRapture_BBS,Durham,Steve_Winter,1-919-286-3962,9600,CM,HST,V32b
,2,PreRapture_BBS_2,Durham,Steve_Winter,1-919-286-3606,9600,CM,HST,V32b
,3,PreRapture_BBS_3,Durham,Steve_Winter,1-919-286-3266,9600,CM,HST,V32b
,4,PreRapture_BBS_4,Durham,Steve_Winter,1-919-286-4617,9600,CM,HST,V32b

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

FidoNews 9-48 Page 9 30 Nov 1992

======================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
======================================================================

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

Editors: Tom Jennings, Tim Pozar
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello

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

"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/23 <---- NEW ADDRESS!!!!
Internet [email protected]
BBS +1-415-863-2739, 300/1200/2400/16800/V.32bis/Zyxel

(Postal Service mailing address) (have extreme patience)
FidoNews
c/o World Power Systems <---- don't forget this
Box 77731
San Francisco
CA 94107 USA

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 1992 Tom Jennings. 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, 1:107/519.1 (and probably others), via filerequest or
download (consult a recent nodelist for phone numbers).

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.)

FidoNews 9-48 Page 10 30 Nov 1992

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.

"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA 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

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