F I D O N E W S -- Volume 15, Number 33 17 August 1998

F I D O N E W S -- Volume 15, Number 33 17 August 1998
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | +27-41-515-913 [5:5/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| 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 ................................................ 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
3. ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT ........................ 5
Announcing the WRESTLING_CHAT Echo ....................... 5
4. NOTICES .................................................. 6
5. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 7
6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 10
FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 1 17 Aug 1998

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

Dear Readers,

This is the first issue prepared in Zone 5. Well in the City of
Port Elizabeth on the Southern tip of Africa. It's currently
winter here, raining and not to pleasant.

Allow me to thank Zorch Frezberg for having looked after FidoNews
for the past and in trusting me with being your new editor.

Thanks Zorch.

As happens normally with the first issue from a new editor, there
ain't much to be written, but I'll tell you a bit more about myself
in later issue(s). ;-)

Also, there is not much in this issue, but I sincerely hope, you
will contribute and keep _our_ FidoNews in operation!!

Happy reading.

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FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 2 17 Aug 1998

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

Dear Editorbeing,

This column is lashed together by Doc Logger (163/110) in
deference to Art Lee who needs email fodder to complain
about. As usual, Logger was winning major stuffed armadillo
bets on the evolution of Fidonet.

Roll da flic, Henk.....

Dear Reverend Visage,

I'd like to start off by thanking Zorch for being the
Snoozlord. It takes a great deal of effort and commitment to
put out this organ week after week, and it must have been
doubly difficult for Zorch when quite often the submission
cupboard contained nothing but my cheesy ravings. There is
very little that Zorch wrote that I agreed with, but I
appreciate the fact that he was willing to say it. If future
Snoozlords take as seriously the concept of a free press,
then we will be well served, as we were by Zorch during his
tenure.

We are still lingering in the summer doldrums waiting
patiently for the fall netwar season to start so there isn't
much to report. David Bowerman and I played musical chairs
for a few days over the rights of admin moderators. This
might have focused the issue of whether admin moderators
should be able to shut down debate, but the issue of
contention didn't provide enough illumination on that theme.

I notice that Ward Dossche is asking for more than a brief
word from Satti in the ZCC echo. I think I even detected a
hint of sarcasm in the references to the long list of
achievements that Satti has completed since he clawed his
way into the IC position. If anyone does have a list of
Satti's achievements and they don't mind sparing the
matchbook cover they must be written on, they could shoot
some netmail to Swamp Swine Magazine, care of myself.

For my pithy quote to lead into the Chautauqua, I've chosen
Eldridge Cleaver who wrote in "Soul on Ice" while raging
about how the social revolution had been usurped, wrote:

"..all of this in a nation where the so-called molders of
public opinion, the writers, politicians, teachers, and cab
drivers, are willful euphoric liars or zip-dam ostriches and
owls, a clique of undercover ghosts... a lot of coffee
drinking, cigarette smoking, sly suck-assing, status
seeking, cheating, nervous, dry-balled, tranquilizer
gulched, countdown minded, out of style, slithering snakes.
FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 3 17 Aug 1998

No wonder that many 'innocent people', the manipulated and
the stimulated, some of whom were game for a reasonable
amount of mystery and even adventure, had their minds
scrambled"

I happen to like that quote because it certainly is a
passionate statement. I also think that it crystallizes the
despair of anyone who has watched a hopeful dream get
trashed in the mixmaster of popular culture. We have become
a great deal more efficient and mercantile since 1968 when
Cleaver was writing and now it takes very little time at all
for legitimate social protest to become just another
advertising vehicle for something...selling beer, or
designer clothing, or simply selling the ideas. (Surely the
very concept could be marketed as "Cleaver's Angst" - a
designer cologne or at the very least a television series
sponsored by an obliging bathroom cleanser.)

I watch with trepidation as various souls propose New &
Improved visual sensations for Fidoland styled after the eye
candy of Internet. My fear springs from the fact that it
will quickly become a medium where words don't matter except
as graphic text boxes, and communication will hit the gutter
of factoid style discourse.

I recently read through the entire collection of Fidonews
issues and I must say that it presents an interesting
picture of an evolving Fidonet. For the most part, it also
paints a disheartening picture of a good idea gone wrong. On
the plus side, I believe that the original spirit of Fidonet
is salvageable and there remain a few minor impediments to
restoring it.

As conceived, Fidonet was to be a militantly public domain
network for communication between consenting sysops. What
few rules there were operated at the level of addressing and
connectivity. The concept was designed to be self-regulating
and self-adjusting - an anarchist's compact in an emerging
technology. In the good old days there was a genuine concern
that the world of modem to modem communication would be
dominated by commercial interests and also regulated by
governments in order to serve the interests of those
corporations. Fidonet owes much to the software developers
who made the system functional, and still owes a great debt
of thanks to those who move the mail.

In general when people talk reverently about rights or
freedoms they speak as though they possessed those things.
The "inalienable rights" referred to in a number of national
constitutions are in fact very alien when it comes to
practice. The gulf between the good idea, and the desire to
short-circuit the concept by those in power tends to raise
the ugly specter of expediency as an excuse for chiseling at
the dream. Fidonet started out with a practical application
of "inalienable rights" and was hijacked along the way. From
the self-imposed hari-kari of the International Fidonet
FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 4 17 Aug 1998

Association (IFNA) through to the brigands who proclaimed
Peefour, the route has gone from a free association of
sysops to a series of fiefdoms and private domains of those
who want control over others.

There are a myriad of arguments for having rules and rulers
in Fidonet, some of them are even valid. The adherents of
rigid structure speak of the horrors of mob rule leading to
chaos. The presupposition of their arguments assumes that
the mob would be armed with anything, unlike the current
batch of *Cs who wield the blunt stick of Peefour. I think
that the people who assert that we have to have rules don't
see themselves as capable of accepting responsibility. They
lack optimism.

The lonely beacon of hope that has remained through
Fidonet's history has been the Fidonews. Despite the
frequent attempts to curtail the content, it has survived as
a medium of free exchange. With any sort of luck, an editor
can be found who can energize sysops to contribute articles
and expand the common experience of us all.

I must go Visage, I have sent the teenmonsters off to
torment their obliging uncles and can't pass up this golden
opportunity presented by an empty house... which is to fall
asleep without the banshee whine of bad punk rock music
reverberating the walls.

Regards,
Doc Logger,
Furlang Island,
South Pacific

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FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 5 17 Aug 1998

=================================================================
ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT
=================================================================

Emanuel Edwards
1:348/963
[email protected]

Hello all Fidonet Sysops:

Where else can you find a great echo that will increase the users on
your BBS? Well here is the answer to your question.

The WRESTLING_CHAT echo can be classified as one of the best echo on
Fidonet today. If you don't have internet access and want to read
all the latest news in the wrestling world this echo will provide you
with all the valuable information. In the last 6 months the echo
been getting well over 200 messages a week. Once you request the
WRESTLING_CHAT on your BBS you will see a great increase in news
users on your BBS.

Make that important decision today and request this great and
interesting echo on your BBS. If you need more information about the
echo you can contact me by email at [email protected]

The Areatag for the echo is WRESTLING_CHAT
Moderator for the echo is Emanuel Edwards
Co_Moderator for the echo is Barry Laws JR
Volume of Mail in one months 1000 to 1200

Emanuel
Internet [email protected]
Fidonet 1:348/963

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FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 6 17 Aug 1998

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

Future History

5 Oct 1998
29th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus".

14 Sep 1998
Start of International BBS Week [thru 20 Sep 98].

22 Sep 1998
First anniversary of the FidoNews domain of www.fidonews.org.

23 Nov 1998
35th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

1 Dec 1998
Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by
Tom Jennings.

16 Feb 1999
13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush.

12 May 1999
12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4;
10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4.

24 Jul 1999
XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].

9 Jun 1999
Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07.

31 Dec 1999
Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.

1 Jan 2000
The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.

1 Jun 2000
EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.

15 Sep 2000
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.

1 Jan 2001
This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.

-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.

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FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 7 17 Aug 1998

=================================================================
FIDONET BY INTERNET
=================================================================

This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the
FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end.

FidoNet:

Homepage http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII]
WWW sources http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html
FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc
Echomail [pending]
WebRing http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html [TFN]
General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html
http://www.trak-one.co.uk/foti

============

Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org

Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html

Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/

Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/

Region 19: http://www.compconn.net

============

Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org

ZEC2:
Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/z2_elist/

Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)

Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish)

Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German)
Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German)

Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/

Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie
REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb

Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm

Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French)

Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (Swiss?)

FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 8 17 Aug 1998

Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian)

Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish)
REC34: http://pobox.com/~chr

Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/

Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html

Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English)

Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl

============

Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org

============

Zone 4: http://www.altern.org/zone4

Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet
Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)

============

Zone 5: http://w3.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm

============

Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org

Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese)

============

Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor,
and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If
no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from
that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages
should list access points to all Networks within the Region.

TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted
to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone.

-----------oOo-------------

Fidonet Via Internet Hubs

Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate
-----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+-----------
1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo.
1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo.
1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton |FTP,VMoT,F2I,UUE| 64k | $10/$20mo.
1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20
FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 9 17 Aug 1998

1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo.
1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | F2I | ??? | $2mo.
1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE,F2I | 28.8 | $10/yr.
1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo.
1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn
1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $1mo.
1:2424/3121| Earl Clark | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo.
1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VFOS | 33.6 | $15yr.
1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c
1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo.
1:342/1022 | Steve Steffler | UUE,F2I | 33.6 | n/c
1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6
1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo.
2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c
2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c
2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c
2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn
2:2490/5170| Lenny Murphy | F2I | ??? | n/c
5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c
--
+ VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
+ F2I = Fido2Int (W95)
+ UUE = uuencode<->email packet transfers

compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, [email protected]
Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews.
-
___
! Origin: * Fly By Night * (609)814-1978 *(1:2623/71)

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FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 10 17 Aug 1998

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

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

Editor: Henk Wolsink

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

"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 5:5/23
BBS +27-41-515-913, 2400/9600/V.34/V.90

more addresses:
Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, [email protected]

(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 12325
Port Elizabeth,
6006
South Africa

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

FidoNews is 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 and/or the Editor.

Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright 1998 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
the Editor.

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSFnn.ZIP] for a
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98.

FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 11 17 Aug 1998

Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
size from 48K to 1.4M.

INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:

http://www.fidonews.org
http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/fido/
ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews

And in non-English formats via:

http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian)
http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish)

*=*=*

You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:

[email protected]

with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist

and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the
email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist
with no message to the same address above.

*

You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail
by sending email to:

[email protected]

with a Subject line of: help

and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and
instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will
respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on
www.fidonews.org.

*=*=*

You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:

http://www.fidonews.org

STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:

ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/

FIDONEWS 15-33 Page 12 17 Aug 1998

Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs.

=*=*=*=

The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also
available almost immediately after publication on the FidoNews Editor
homepage on the World Wide Web at:

http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html

There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an
email link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

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 Editor, or file-requestable
from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
also have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.

"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141,
and are used with permission.

"Disagreement is actually necessary,
or we'd all have to get in fights
or something to amuse ourselves
and create the requisite chaos."
-Tom Jennings

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