F I D O N E W S         Volume 17, Number 34             21 Aug 2000
    +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
    |  The newsletter of the     |   ISSN 1198-4589 Published by:        |
    |    FidoNet community       |   "FidoNews"                          |
    |          _                 |   1-717-732-6820     1:270/720        |
    |         /  \               |                                       |
    |        /|oo \              |                                       |
    |       (_|  /_)             |                                       |
    |        _`@/_ \    _        |                                       |
    |       |     | \   \\       |   Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720    |
    |       | (*) |  \   ))      |           [email protected]          |
    |       |__U__| /  \//       |                                       |
    |        _//|| _\   /        |                                       |
    |       (_/(_|(____/         |                                       |
    |             (jm)           |   Newspapers should have no friends.  |
    |                            |                    -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
    +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+



                       Table of Contents
    1. EDITORIAL  ................................................  1
       What's Not Happening - Policy Ratification  ...............  1
    2. COLUMNS  ..................................................  3
       Ol'WDB: Instructions for Life  ............................  3
    3. NET HUMOR  ................................................  5
       Year 2000 Signs  ..........................................  5
       The Princess and the Queen  ...............................  6
    4. INTERNET INFO  ............................................  7
       Fidonet-related sites  ....................................  7
    5. FIDONEWS INFO  ............................................ 11
       Masthead  ................................................. 11
    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 1                   21 Aug 2000


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


         .-- -- -- -- -- -- 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...   |
         `-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --'

                            Policy Ratification
                                 Doug Myers

    Regular readers of the FN_SYSOP echo can attest to the fact that the
    biggest non-event shaping up in Fidonet this year is any type of
    action relating to Policy.

    In one thread, David Moufarrege's proposed Policy revision was cited
    as current policy, though the author was quickly informed that the
    "new" policy was, indeed, a proposal.  However, in that discussion,
    Ward Dossche, the Zone 2 Coordinator, revealed that he hadn't
    previously seen the proposal nor had he seen the debate in the Zone
    1 echoes.  Since any policy change would require a majority vote of
    ALL Regional Coordinators... and since the issue doesn't even seem
    to be rambling about outside Zone 1... and since the discussion in
    Zone 1 on that particular version has already died... don't expect a
    Policy revision any time soon.

    In another thread, the question of whether the International
    Coordinator must be a sitting Zone Coordinator is argued.  One
    section of Policy states that the International Coordinator is the
    "First among equals" among the Zone Coordinators, while another
    section of Policy states that Coordinators at any level should
    minimize the number of hats worn.  So we seem to have one
    implication that the IC should be a sitting ZC, but another
    implication that the IC should resign as ZC upon his selection.
    Given that the call for a new IC earlier this year couldn't even
    draw a response from all the ZC's (let alone the IC), don't expect
    either a change of IC's soon, nor a resolution of P4's apparent
    conflict on the question of whether an IC must be a sitting ZC.

    And yet another thread rages, centered on Darrell Salter's
    longstanding assertion that Policy 4 is not legitimate because it
    was never ratified by the Sysops of Fidonet.  The solution to this
    would be obvious, it might seem:  put the question to the Sysops and
    see what they say.  However, two complications arise...
    1.  Darrell isn't interested in putting the question forward since
    he's chosen to simply ignore policy.
    2.  Those who disagree with him aren't interested in putting the
    question forward since Policy 4 itself says it isn't necessary...
    ratification is clearly placed in the hands of the Regional
    Coordinators.

    If Policy is defined as that document that proclaims itself to be
    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 2                   21 Aug 2000


    Policy (P4), then don't expect any action soon.

    If, however, Policy is defined as that which is actually practiced
    rather than that which is documented... then the policy seems to be
    one of no particular action.  Same result :)



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

    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 3                   21 Aug 2000


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


                                   Ol'WDB
               I N S T R U C T I O N S     F O R     L I F E

    1.  Take into account that great love and great achievements involve
        great risk.

    2.  When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

    3.  Follow the three Rs:  Respect for self; Respect for others; and
        Responsibility for all your actions.

    4.  Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful
        stroke of luck.

    5.  Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

    6.  Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

    7.  When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to
        correct it.

    8.  Spend some time alone every day.

    9.  Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

    10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

    11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think
        back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

    12. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current
        situation.  Don't bring up the past.

    14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

    15. Be gentle with the earth.

    16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

    17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love
        for each other exceeds your need for each other.

    18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get
        it.

    19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

    20. Forgive trust transgretions, they are not of the utmost
        importance to anyone except you.


    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 4                   21 Aug 2000


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

    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 5                   21 Aug 2000


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


    Signs that you live in the year 2000:

     1. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.

     2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of
        three.

     3. You call your son's beeper to let him know it's  time to eat. He
        emails you back from his bedroom,  "What's for dinner?"

     4. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her  web site.

     5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa,
        but you haven't spoken with your next  door neighbor yet this
        year.

     6. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see
        if it contains Echinacea.

     7. You check your blow-dryer to see if it's Y2K compliant.

     8. Your grandmother clogs up your e-mail inbox asking you to send
        her a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen
        saver.

     9. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see
        if anyone is home.

     10. Every commercial on television has a web-site address at the
         bottom of the screen.

     11. You buy a computer and a week later it is out of date and now
         sells for half the price you paid.

     12. The concept of using real money, instead of credit or debit, to
         make a purchase is foreign to you.

     13. Cleaning up the dining room means getting the fast food bags
         out of the back seat of your car.

     14. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they
         do not have e-mail addresses.

     15. You consider second-day air delivery painfully slow.

     16. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet.

     17. Your idea of being organized is multiple-colored Post-it notes.

     18. You hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person.

    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 6                   21 Aug 2000


     19. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.

     20. You turn off your Modem and get this awful feeling, as if you
         just pulled the plug on a loved one.

     21. You get up in morning and go online before getting your coffee.

     22. You wake up at 2am to go to the bathroom and check your E-mail
         on your way back to bed.

     23.You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

     24. You're reading this.

     25. Even worse; you're going to forward it to someone else.


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


                         The Princess and the Queen
                             Thanks to Roy Reed

    The plane's cabin was being served by an obviously gay flight
    attendant who was just as obviously enjoying himself. He came
    swishing down the aisle and announced to the passengers, "Captain
    Marvey has asked me to announce that he'll be landing this big,
    scary plane shortly, lovely people, so if you could just put up your
    trays, that would be super."

    On his trip back up the aisle, he noticed that a woman hadn't moved
    a muscle. "Perhaps you didn't hear me over those big brute engines.
    I asked you to raise your trazy-poo so the main man can pitty-pat us
    on the ground."

    She calmly turned her head and said, "In my country, I am called a
    princess. I take orders from no one".

    The flight attendant replied, without missing a beat, "Well,
    sweet-cheeks, in my country, I'm called a queen, so I outrank you.
    Put the tray up, bitch!"


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

    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 7                   21 Aug 2000


    =================================================================
                              INTERNET INFO
    =================================================================


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                  ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/zone2 (Z2 nodelists etc.)
      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)
                  http://www.was-ist-fido.de/
        Fido-IP:  http://home.nrh.de/fido/ (English/German)
      Region 25:  http://www.literary.freeserve.co.uk/net2502/
      Region 26:  http://www.nemesis.ie
    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 8                   21 Aug 2000


         REC 26:  http://www.nrgsys.com/orb
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    ? Region 33:  http://www.fidoitalia.net  (Italian)
      Region 34:  http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm  (Spanish)
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      Region 41:  http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English)
      Region 42:  http://www.fido.cz
    !    Net422:  http://www.fido.sk (Slovak/English)
      Region 50:  http://www.fido7.com/  (Russian)
       Net 5010:  http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/  (Russian)
       Net 5015:  http://www.fido.nnov.ru/  (Russian)
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    Zone 3:       http://www.z3.fidonet.org

    Zone 4:
      Region 80:  http://fidobrasil.8m.com  (Portuguese)
      Region 90:
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    Zone 5:       http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/

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                         Fidonet Via Internet Hubs

    See also: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidoip.html

    a @ preceding an individual's name implies a virtual email
    address. The email is translated as follows
    [email protected] will automatically route to the
    appropriate individual's email.  Anyone in this list will
    also receive routed notice of this feature.  In my case, it
    would still be [email protected], but you get the idea.

    Also, as information is provided to me, I will be adding a
    latency field to each node, which is defined as the maximum
    time between when the message is received, and when it is
    sent on to other nodes, or available to be sent onward,
    defined in minutes. A latency of ! implies that there is an
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    after processing, or a "MinuteMail System", as it were.

               v-email flag [email protected]
               | email address or
    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 9                   21 Aug 2000


    Node#      | Operator          | Facilities (*) | Speed,| Basic Rate
               |                   |                |latency|
    -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------
    Zone 1     |                   |                |       |
      10/3     @ Brenda Donovan    | FTP,UUE,BinkP  | 384K,30| n/c
      10/345   @ Todd Cochrane     | FTP,BinkP,VMOT | T1,!  | n/c
      12/12    @ Ken Wilson        | FTP            | T1    | $24mo.
      13/25    @ Jim Balcom        | FTP            | 56k   | $20mo.
     103/5     @ Mark Luetger      | BinkP          | 384k,!| n/c
     103/153   @ Michael Box       | BinkP          | aDSL,!| n/c
     103/301   @ Joe Jared         | BinkP,FTP,NFS  | 384k,!| n/c
     103/401   @ Warren Bonner     | BinkP          | aDSL,!| n/c
     105/8     | Russ Johnson      | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k  | n/c
     105/72    @ Larry James       | FTP, BinkP     | aDSL  | $50/yr
     106/1     @ Steve Loupe       | BinkP, FTP     | 128k  | ???
     106/6018  | Lawrence Garvin   | FTP, VMoT      | aDSL,60| n/c
     107/453   @ Jeffrey Estevez| FTP,BinkP,VMoT,UUE| 56k,60| $10 mo.
     140/1     @ Bob Seaborn       | FTP,BinkP      | T3,30 | $5/$16
     167/133   | Stephen Monteith  | BinkP          | 128k+ | n/c
     211/417   @ Korombos          | BinkP,UUE,FTP  | T1    | n/c
     218/109   @ Matt Munson       | BinkP,UUE      | 33.6k | n/c
     244/2     | Kari Suomela   | FTP,VMoT,BinkP,UUE| T1,!  | $25.00/mo
     246/160   @ Mason Vye         | FTP, UUE       | 56K   | n/c
     280/169   | Brian Greenstreet | FTP            | 33.6  | $2mo.
     342/3     @ Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP      | 128K+ | n/c
     395/670   | Arthur Stark      | BinkD,FTP      | 128k  | n/c
     396/1     @ John Souvestre    | FTP,VMoT       | T1,10 | $5/mo
     396/45    | Marc Lewis        | UUE            | 33.6  | $26/yr
    2604/104   @ Jim Mclaughlin    | FTP,VMoT,UUE   | 33.6  | $1mo
    2613/404   @ David Moufarrege  | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+,!| n/c
    2624/306   @ David Calafrancesco  | VMoT        | 33.6  | n/c
    3613/2     @ [email protected] | UUE            | 28.8  | n/c
    3632/84    | Robert Todd    |FTP,VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 57.6k | n/c
    3639/93    @ Ross Cassell      | FTP, BinkP     |128K+,!| n/c
    3651/9     @ Jerry Gause       | FTP,VMoT       | 33.6  | $3/$6
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    Zone 2     |
      20/11    | Henrik Lindhe     | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
      31/1     | Gabriel Plutzar   | BinkP          | T1+   | n/c
     203/600   | Mikael Karlsson   | UUE            | 64k   | n/c
     221/360   @ Tommi Koivula     | BinkP,UUE      | ???   | n/c
     236/205   @ Michael Kaaber    | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     246/2098  | Volker Imre       | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     284/800   @ Jeroen VanDeLeur  | FTP,UUE        | 64k   | n/c
     292/620   | Eddy Missoul      | VMoT, UUE      | 64k   |N/C
     292/624   | Steven Leeman     | UUE          | 64k   | N/C
     292/2003  | Eric Vaneberck    | BinkP          | 768k  | n/c
     301/1     | Peter Witschi     | BinkP          | 768k  | n/c
     332/807   | Roberto Mascolo   | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     335/535   @ Mario Mure        | BinkP,VMot,UUE | 64k   | n/c
     335/610   | Gino Lucrezi      | UUE            | 33.6  | n/c
     344/201   | Julio Garcia      | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     346/3     @ Carlos Navarro    | UUE            | ???   | n/c
     382/100   | Sinisa Burina     | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     406/555   | Ofir Michaeli &   | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     406/555   | Marius Kaizerman  | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 10                  21 Aug 2000


     423/81    | Milos Bajer       | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
     464/4077  | Serguei Trouchelle| UUE            | 19.2  | n/c
     465/204   | Va Milushnikov    | BinkP          | 33.6k | n/c
     469/84    | Max Masyutin      | VMoT           | 256k  | n/c
     480/112   | Adam Sarapata| FTP, VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 128k  | n/c
    2411/413   @ Dennis Dittrich   | UUE,BinkP      | 64k   | n/c
    2446/301   @ Lothar Behet      | BinkP,VMoT,UUE,FTP | 64K   | n/c
    2474/275   | Christian Emig    | UUE            | 64k   | unkn
    5030/115   | Andrey Podkolzin  | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
    5100/8     | Egons Bush        | BinkP          | ???   | n/c
    5020/1159  | Gennady Kudryashoff | UUE          | 33.6  | n/c
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    Zone 3
     633/260   @ Malcolm Miles     | FTP,BinkP      | 64K   | n/c
     640/954   | Rick Van Ruth     | FTP,VMot,UUE,BinkP| 56K| n/c
     774/605   @ Barry Blackford|BinkP,VMoT:10023,ifcico,FTP |33.6| n/c

    --------------------------------------------------------------
    Zone 4
     905/100   | Fabian Gervan     | VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 128k  | n/c
     902/18    | Javier Tejedor    | UUE            | 33,6  | n/c

    --
    * FTP   = Internet File Transfer Protocol
    * VMoT  = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
    * UUE   = uuencode<->email type transfers
    * BinkP = front end mailer for TCPIP networks
    * NFS   = Linux Networking
    ----------------------------------------------
    Fidonet oriented news servers

    news.osirusoft.com
    news.tardis.net

    Fidonet oriented chat rooms.

    room #fidonet  5PM (PDT 11AM GMT) Sundays
    irc.osirusoft.com  (Peers wanted)

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

    Please send updates, corrections and suggestions to
    Joe Jared, 1:103/301, [email protected].  All email addresses
    here for purpose of corresponding with fidonet members about
    obtaining a feed.  Improper use of the virtual email addresses, and
    most especially, email addressed to [email protected]
    will be considered a request to be blocked by my open relay spam
    stopper at http://relays.osirusoft.com



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    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 11                  21 Aug 2000


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    FIDONEWS 17-34               Page 12                  21 Aug 2000


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