F I D O N E W S Volume 15, Number 46 16 Novenber 1998

F I D O N E W S Volume 15, Number 46 16 Novenber 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] |
| [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. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 2
The Bride of FidoSpine - Echomail Drama Review ........... 2
3. COLUMNS .................................................. 3
Into the void again ...................................... 3
4. NET HUMOR ................................................ 5
What's Not Happening ..................................... 5
5. NOTICES .................................................. 7
6. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 8
7. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 11
FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 1 16 Nov 1998

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

Greetings,

Sorry, but I really do not have much time this evening to write
as I'm preparing for a business trip.

One item which I'm totally disgusted with, is this EchoList/ELIST
issue.

More on this next week.

Have a good one.

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FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 2 16 Nov 1998

=================================================================
GUEST EDITORIAL
=================================================================

The Bride of FidoSpine
Echomail Drama Review
Douglas Myers 1:270/720 [email protected]

If one were to stand with one ear to the Z1C echo and one to the
BACKBONE echo... and if one were to listen very carefully, then on a
quiet day one can hear the drama played out by the Stars. Actually,
you probably don't need a hearing aid right now as the Northwestern
Star moves into its ascendancy and the Southern Star threatens to go
Supernova...

The latest drama is about the lifeblood of Fidonet... echomail. It
opens in a small monastery somewhere in the Southern Star, where
Brother John is dutifully installing the inscriptions of the new
Northwestern Star to the Holy Writings. Brother John is wary,
though, when he discovers that the new star is supported by a
FidoSpine rather than the North American Backbone found in all the
faithful.

The good Friar is wise to the ways of an ancient people who, as the
legend goes, thrive on the very lifeblood of Fidonet. Suspecting
that Count Bob may not be One Of Us, the monk unveils the Mirror of
BoFaq... and finds that Count Bob casts no reflection upon it.

The lastest installment closes on a cliffhanger, as Brother John
calls upon the OBO Almighty to expose the Count to the light of day
and drive him forever from the land. But the Count escapes to the
darkness of his own castle, revealing that a secret pact has
actually given him posession of the North American Backbone to be
forever the Bride of Fidospine.

Fans of Gothic Apocalypse should find this tale interesting. We
at Fidonews give it "two thumbs up" and wait with bated breath for
the consummation.

--
| Fidonet: Douglas Myers 1:270/[email protected]
| Internet: [email protected]
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.
| From Mdtn_BBS @mdtnbbs.com [ In the Heart of Three Mile Island ]

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FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 3 16 Nov 1998

=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================

Dear EditorBeing,

This article is submitted by Doc Logger (1:163/110) in the
faint hopes that it will actually find its way into the
Snooz on the fifth attempt. All appropriate small furry
animals have been sacrificed as appeasements to the gods so
that they can instill His Henkness with a vague
understanding of what the word "editing" means.

Roll da flic, Henk....

Dear Reverend Visage,

I know that you have probably been as amused as I have with
the news that Billy Clinton is wagging the dog in another
effort to distract the public. For this month's diversion,
he has chosen to make sabre-rattling noises in the direction
of Iraq. If CNN's Christian Amanpour would take the golf
balls out of her mouth I might be able to understand what
she is saying, but I think the gist of it is that US air
forces are slated to bomb Iraq back into the Stone Age,
which is apparently a different Stone Age from the last one
they were allegedly bombed into.

As you know, I am not the least bit cynical and fully
believe that the Americans are engaging in another live-fire
test over Baghdad for reasons that have everything to do
with "keeping the world safe for democracy" and other piffle
foisted on the gullible public by the State Department. I
must have missed it, but I haven't quite seen any democratic
elections in Kuwait recently - that bastion of personal
freedom which the Western world so nobly defended. One can
only hope that the good companies of France, who never met a
moral issue that wasn't flexible, will garner the usual
profits by selling arms to both sides in the conflict.

You'll be so pleased to learn that Satti's lonely November
thought was a petulant rant to Lynn Gipson who had stated
the obvious - that Satti was about as useful as dimorphisms
on a nun. The rattling of poor Satti's thought was made more
amusing by the fact that he claimed to be running Fidonet
through a series of netmail responses. The good news is that
Satti's term of office is over in March and one hopes that
the various RCs in Zone1 will find someone with vital life
signs to take over the role.

I see that Zone 2 has opened the floodgates to AntFarmMail
by allowing IP addresses into the nodelist. Under the
well-intentioned guise of opening up communications to a
wider spectrum of users, they have put the kiss of death on
Fidonet. Their argument is about as specious as suggesting
FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 4 16 Nov 1998

that Windows has made for more efficient usage of computers.
The good news is that the new addressing will give Lisa
Gronke, The Ministry of Fidonet Antiquities & Echomail
Regularity, more things to talk about as she follows arcane
paths and echomail routing schemes. The perpetual debates
between Bob Seaborn and John Souvestre can now be seamlessly
merged with the alt.guinea.pig.conspiracy newsgroup.

For those Luddites who still read printed text, this week's
recommendation is Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity." Hornby
gives away a great many "guy team" secrets but the book is
intelligently funny. Check it out.

I must go, Visage. Your secretary has booked me to speak at
this year's Swamp Swine Magazine Annual Awards dinner. The
only award we won was for "outstanding fiction in petty cash
vouchers" which was given in recognition of the fact that no
one had ever claimed a brace of water buffalo as "research
assistants." Your secretary is not a well woman, Visage, and
the fact that she has taken up smoking cigars and winking at
me is proof positive of that.

Regards,
Doc Logger,
Furlang Island,
South Pacific

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FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 5 16 Nov 1998

=================================================================
NET HUMOR
=================================================================

.-- -- -- -- -- -- WHAT'S NOT HAPPENING -- -- -- -- -- --.
| There isn't always something happening on Fidonet, but |
| there's always something which isn't happening. This |
| column is dedicated to the lost causes which make Fido |
| what it isn't today. Published semi-occasionally... |
`-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --'
Douglas Myers [email protected] 1:270/720

NO ZEC NEED APPLY IN ZONE 1

The Regional Echomail Coordinator's Council has emerged from months
of secluded deliberations. Their action on the Zone Coordinator's
charge to determine the method of election of their chairperson
is... no action. The RECC has decided that it doesn't need a ZEC.

Supporters of this resolution point out that echomail flows just
fine despite the lack of a ZEC for the recent past. Pundits point
out that the same arguement can be applied to the RECC. In the
meantime, the RECC waits - ready to spring into inaction - while the
ZC reviews their resolution to come to no decision.

And no ZEC need apply...

UNREQUESTING ECHOS

The R13EC has introduced a new variation to the process of adding
echoes to the North American Backbone. Normally, an echo is
elisted, and then the moderator requests addition to the NAB. If
two REC's subsequently request the echo for their region, it is then
carried by the BACKBONE, available to all.

In an interesting maneuver recently, the R13EC "unrequested" two of
the echoes under consideration. It's not clear at this point
whether this action cancels a "request" or if the action is strictly
symbolic. It's not even clear what was wrong with the echos, as the
R13EC tells us that the original unrequestor has not provided
further information.

This looks like a prime candidate for WHAT'S NOT HAPPENING, but just
in case the idea catches on, here are some other echos for future
unrequesting:

CPLUSPLUSPLUS Assertiveness training for Fidonet Coordinators.
Unrequested by programmers everywhere.

AERHEAD Aerobic exercises for sinus disorders. Unrequested
by the blonde lobby.

ECHOLAW Discussion of the principles of sound propagation in
FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 6 16 Nov 1998

mountainous terrain. Unrequested by just about
everyone.

--
| Fidonet: Douglas Myers 1:270/[email protected]
| Internet: [email protected]
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.
| From Mdtn_BBS @mdtnbbs.com [ In the Heart of Three Mile Island ]

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FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 7 16 Nov 1998

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

Future History

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.

10 Sep 1999
10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.

26 Oct 1999
Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.

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.

21 Sep 2000
10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)

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 15-46 Page 8 16 Nov 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
http://travel.to/fidonet/
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
List servers:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion

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

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

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

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

Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/

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

Region 19: http://www.compconn.net/r19

Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/

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

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

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

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
FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 9 16 Nov 1998

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

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

Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German)

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 42: http://www.fido.cz

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

Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian)
Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English)
Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian)

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

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://www.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.
FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 10 16 Nov 1998

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
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 15-46 Page 11 16 Nov 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 15-46 Page 12 16 Nov 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.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/

Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
FIDONEWS 15-46 Page 13 16 Nov 1998

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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