F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 26 28 June 1999

F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 26 28 June 1999
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | +27-41-581-5913 [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 |
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Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
He's Baaaack! ............................................ 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions ............... 2
3. NET HUMOR ................................................ 3
Top 15 Unforseen Y2K Consequences ........................ 3
4. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 4
Cows in Polonaise ........................................ 4
5. NOTICES .................................................. 5
Future History ........................................... 5
6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 6
FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 1 28 Jun 1999

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EDITORIAL
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He's Baaaack!

Henk's back in town. I got email Saturday... his heart's still in
Europe but his rear end is in South Africa. This will be my last
issue as Editor Pro Tem; next week Fidonews will be in the capable
hands of Henk Wolsink once again.

It's been fun. I'd like to thank the folks who took advantage of
the Editor Pro Tem Special to send me articles for Fidonews... where
the heck were you all this week? :) And thanks for the suggestions
and criticisms - it's nice to know folks out there actually read the
Snooze!

Thanks to Jim Barchuk for turning fidonews.org upside down so that I
could do the Snooze from the heart of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Gary
Rux and George Peace for modifying their TIC configuration so I
could send instead of receive the FIDONEWS file area. And a special
thanks to Henk for letting me roll my sleeves up and work with the
newsletter of the Fidonet Community in his absence. Keep me in
mind, Henk, if you need a stand in again.

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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 2 28 Jun 1999

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ARTICLES
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Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions
Douglas Myers, 1:270/720

As of Sunday, June 27th (yesterday), the Z1C election moved from
it's zonewide public input phase to a regional discussion phase. At
this point, at least in theory, sysops have had sufficient time to
evaluate the candidates based on their discussions in Z1_ELECTION
and now have one week to inform their Regional Coordinator of their
choice. All Regional Coordinators, to the best of my knowledge,
have pledged to vote for the candidate the sysops in their region
selects rather than a personal choice. Most regions plan to gather
input from Net Coordinators.

As a concerned sysop, this is the most critical phase of the
election for you - this next week is your only chance to make your
choice count. You should monitor your local net's sysop echo to see
if your NC is gathering input - if not, netmail him or her with your
choice. Monitor your region's sysop echo to see if your Regional
Coordinator is gathering input there. If so, speak up... even if
you've already spoken with your net.

It's imperative that you speak up this week, as next week, July 3rd,
the election will move to the Regional Coordinator's private echo
for voting. Though Ross Cassell will be reporting on this vote, it
will be too late to influence it.

There's much more than the identity of the next Zone 1 Coordinator
at stake here. This will be a test of sysop involvement in Zone 1
politics. Many feel that sysops throughout the zone just don't care
about the coordinators who represent them. There is, in my opinion,
the prospect that a poor turnout in this election will influence
coordinators to conduct future sessions entirely behind closed
doors, as has been done in the past.

This election has busted one myth already: the feeling that any
sysop level input into the election process would drag the election
into senseless and unproductive bickering. However, the public
discussion period was mostly orderly, with sysops asking reasonable
and poignant questions, and candidates very responsive. Follow
through by sysops in the next week should lay to rest the myth of
sysop apathy in Fidonet.

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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 3 28 Jun 1999

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NET HUMOR
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The Top 15 Unforeseen Consequences of the "Millennium Bug"

15. IRS demands a hundred years of interest from stunned taxpayers.

14. "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" song gets stuck in infinite
loop.

13. At the stroke of midnight, Windows 99 turns back into DOS 1.0,
the Pentium V turns back into an 8088, and the Handsome User is
left holding a beautiful glass mouse.

12. Internet Movie Database now lists "1901: A Space Odyssey"

11. Residents of Indiana have to figure out if they're off by 999
years, 364 days and 23 hours, or 1000 years and one hour.

10. Bob Dole's age erroneously listed with only 2 digits.

9. Mel Brooks's "2000 year old man" skit stops being funny....
oops, too late!

8. Sales of Coca Cola jumps drastically after original
cocaine-laden formula becomes legal again.

7. Software engineers point out that since computers think it's
almost 1900, we technically have to "party like it's 1899,"
which, frankly, doesn't seem like much fun.

6. Microsoft declares the year 1900 to be the new standard of the
"Gatesian" calendar.

5. Jesus shows up late for His second coming, blames it on COBOL
programmers.

4. Computers temporarily fooled into thinking Strom Thurmond is
only 103.

3, First Top 5 List of the year? "Reasons No One Would Ever
Assassinate President McKinley"

2. Using a computerized adoption service, Michael Jackson
mistakenly takes home some octogenarians.

and the Number 1 Unforeseen Consequence of the "Millennium Bug"...

1. Unexpected demand for COBOL programmers results in severe
understaffing of fast-food restaurants.

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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 4 28 Jun 1999

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COMIX IN ASCII
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* (__)* (__)* (__)* (__)
\ (oo) \ (oo) \ (oo) \ (o-)
\-------\/ ^^\-------\/ ^^\-------\/ ^^\-------\/
| // | // | // | ||
||------+ ||------+ ||------+ ||----||
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

Cows in polonaise

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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 5 28 Jun 1999

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NOTICES
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Future History

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

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 16-26 Page 6 28 Jun 1999

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

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

Editor: Henk Wolsink

Editors Emeriti: 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 +27-41-581-5913, 2400/9600/V34

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

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

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

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