F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 03 15 Jan 2001

F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 03 15 Jan 2001
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | 1-714-639-0377 1:1/23 |
| / \ | 1-714-532-1586 1:103/301 |
| /|oo \ | BinkD supported both above |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: Warren Bonner |
| | (*) | \ )) | [email protected] |
| |__U__| / \// | [email protected] |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+

Table of Contents
1. HEADLINE ................................................. 1
HEADLINES ................................................ 1
2. CHAT WITH EDITOR ......................................... 2
3. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 3
-=+GUEST EDITORIAL+=- .................................... 3
4. ARTICLES ................................................. 6
-+-+-+ARTICLES+-+-+- ..................................... 6
5. RECIPES .................................................. 9
-=+Outstanding Recipes+=- ................................ 9
6. GETTING TECHNICAL ........................................ 11
7. ECHOING .................................................. 14
-=+ECHOES and RE-ECHOES+=- ............................... 14
8. WE GET EMAIL ............................................. 17
A Mother's Love .......................................... 17
9. HUMOR .................................................... 19
-=+Today's Funnies+=- .................................... 19
10. FIDONET BY INTERNET ..................................... 20
11. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 25
***FIDONEWS INFORMATION*** ............................... 25
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 1 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
HEADLINE
=================================================================

Is Fido going to Sink or Swim or just `Dog Paddle' around the pool?

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

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 2 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
CHAT WITH EDITOR
=================================================================

When are we going to take the giant step from ASCII only, to HTML?

When are we going to branch out to two publications, one for ASCII
and one for HTML.?

Should the weekly fidonews be a BI-Monthly newsletter?

Should it be alternately ASCII and HTML? Or ASCII weekly, HTML
monthly?

Should all sysops have the choice of which edition and format?

Editor would like feedback on these questions for next issue.
Send replies to address 1:1/23 or [email protected] please.
We need your input to make the Fidonews all it can be to all folks
in fidoland.

Ol'wdb
~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~

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FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 3 15 Jan 2001

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

OPEN LETTER TO OUR NEW IC AND
ALL ZCs
by Andy Manninger

To those of you my notoriety has not reached yet, please allow me to
introduce myself. I am a FidoNet user of 14 years' standing, and a
moderator of the ENGLISH_TUTOR echo for two. As such, I am not,
strictly speaking, a member of the FidoNet organization. But if you
will indulge me, I would like to make some observations and, for a
change, put a positive spin on them. If I wanted to be highfalutin
about it, I would call this blurb a "Clarion Call to Action." Modesty
being one of my salient characteristics, I refrain from doing so.

When I recently had a look at the Z1 Nodelist, my chin dropped. It is
pathetic how it has become a ghostly skeleton of its old self in
British Columbia and elsewhere. This fact is well known, and I am not
going to rehash what has already been belaboured at length by others.
I won't bemoan the passing of the "good old days," and I won't lament
what could have been but isn't. We've seen enough handwringing,
dammit. Instead, I would like to submit a few ideas for your
consideration on how to plug at least some of the holes in poor old
Fido's sinking raft.

Reliability or the Lack Thereof
-------------------------------
I have already carped about the lost messages and the delays in the
echomail message flow in the Snooze before, so I won't bore you with
the obvious. Let me just say that Russian Fido is totally constipated
again, and has been so for over a week. And if you are tempted to say,
"Well, that's Russia for you," may I remind you that the same thing
happens with fair regularity right here in different parts of North
America, most recently in Tennessee (as far as I know). So what are we
going to do to address this problem?

Let me bounce this off you, if I may: mirrored systems. The concept
was already known and implemented back in the early '60s when only the
Pentagon could afford such luxury. For those who don't know what I am
talking about, "mirrored systems" and "disk mirroring or duplexing"
mean two or more interconnected computers or disk controllers and
their hard disks running in tandem and doing the same processing. If
one of them goes on the blink, the other(s) take over. More
sophisticated systems constantly compare their results and, where
three or more computers or controllers are in the system, in case of a
discrepancy "vote" on which one of them is right, and continue from
there. But we needn't get esoteric about it. Simple manually switched
duplex systems would do for us.

Some naysayers have said to me that our volunteer sysops cannot afford
this "luxury" when I suggested that the vital parts of FidoNet should
be obligated to use duplexed systems. My answer is that less than
three years ago I bought a pretty decent Pentium computer for
CN$2,200. Today this amount will buy two comparable machines. Anyone
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 4 15 Jan 2001

who could afford to run a hub or a host system on a single computer
three years ago can afford to run it on a duplexed system today.

The March of Progress
---------------------
I hate to rub it in, but this is the 21st century. Maximus and Wildcat
served admirably as BBS software in their time, but their character
orientation--and the character-based technology of the entire
FidoNet--have long been passe. Like it or not, this is the age of
multimedia. Those who can't keep up, perish. Does the word "dinosaurs"
ring a bell? What are we going to do about not following in their
wake?

I suggest that the Cs call upon the creative talents of the membership
to bring the Net into the 21st century. You might like to set up a
committee to examine the ways of modernizing FidoNet. Surely Tom
Jennings and company, who created this Net from scratch, did not hold
a monopoly on creativity.

To help get the creative juices flowing, thought might be given to
allowing some degree of commercial activity, namely, advertising.
Let's face it, it's greed and ego that make our world go around. I
don't like it, you may not like it, but the facts are undeniable. Even
the idealistic, august International Olympic Committee has succumbed
to the pull of the almighty dollar and allowed a degree of
professionalism in the Olympics that would have been unthinkable not
too many years ago.

Graphical Data
-------------- It is not impossible to send graphical data through
FidoNet, but the cumbersome UUENCODing and, more importantly, the
limitations on the size of the files that can be sent, make it
impractical. Sure you can "crash" your data to its destination, but
you'll be stuck with the cost of the long-distance phone call. I much
prefer e-mail attachments. Let's address this problem too while we are
at it.

Running in Place
----------------
FidoNet, in all its essential features and operation, is the same as
it was 10 or more years ago. Granted, mail-transit speed has improved.
When everything works as it should, it takes less than 12 hours for
echomail from Russia to reach North America. It's not in the Internet
league, but much better than it was years ago.

Telnet is another noteworthy and valuable development. It enables
those of us with Internet connections and with poor or no local
FidoNet service to log onto distant BBSs at no extra cost. It also
creates competition among sysops. The good ones become widely known
and flourish, and those providing poor service and having attitude
problems fall by the wayside--as they should.

I think we can breathe new life into Fido. It will never match the
Internet in scope and versatility, but there is no need for it to
wither on the vine. It can fill a well-deserved niche. But wither it
surely will without modernization as the Internet becomes more
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 5 15 Jan 2001

affordable all around the world. I would really hate to see this
happen. So let's get off our duffs and do something about it!

These are my two cents worth I am submitting for your consideration.
If they generate some creative action, they will have been worth the
effort.

~~~~~~~~~~end~~~~~~~~~~

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FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 6 15 Jan 2001

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

By: Mike Luther

Here's my offering.

Toby was a Russian sled dog born in Siberia, Not a Husky at all,
huge, close to the hundred pound mark, he arrived in Alaska as a
"Thank-you!" present. A KL7 Alaskan ham operator I'd worked on CW as
a high school kid named Bill, had, as an Air Force guy, been crucial
in rescuing a Russian in a not-so-little trans-border mercy flight
mission done for a stranded Russian sled team and driver. Not many
folks realize these things did happen between us and them. They aren't
well known, but they do! Toby, the lead dog for the man's team
arrived in Alaska .. with the rescued Rusky and remained.. a "Thank
you!", for Bill.

Bill arrived in Texas as an escort to an air force buddy, an Aggie, a
comm guy who skinned a phone pole, was filled with creosote splinters
and later died in the deal. In addition to their world-wide Air Force
burn center duties at San Antonio, it seems the unit there also was
the 'directed' vector world-wide for pole cases! For whatever reason,
Bill came back to go to Texas A&M and Toby came with him to Texas.

Texas A&M refused to let Toby stay in student housing just across from
where the Bonfire fell. With a great deal of emotion, Bill called me.
I got Toby. Toby was told to go in the hand-over. I never asked my
Dad, I just brought him home. I think the dog knew exactly what was
happening. Bill gave me a can of dog food to take with me, "Just give
him the unopened can to keep him occupied. He'll know what to do and
who you are."

Mikey puts Toby in back yard, does as instructed. Toby takes the
unopened dog food can mouth, looks curiously at me, then lays down
chewing the can, very deftly and carefully. Hours later, the can has
been chewed open, all the contents squished out of it. Toby has been
occupied, now knows where home is and who is supposed to be the boss.
Dad came home, found the dog and the can. There were no questions
asked. Bill later said, "His original owner did that to the dogs to
keep them occupied in the lonely missions and bond them."

Some dog indeed. Curious dog. He couldn't even bark, howled - mostly
wolf, at the passing Sunbeam, the fire trucks. *NO* other dog ever
even approached him; period. Yes, indeed, Toby was just about
single-handedly responsible for the College Station leash law that
later followed him. We won't dwell on his taste for chicken, or his
roaming range, pre-leash law. I biked it; he hiked it. Dad paid for
the difference in more ways than one, but Toby stayed. Dad never once
complained about the cost. Once passed, it was Toby's territory.

He was a marvelous strange companion dog. Especially at the private
rifle range. A queerly-configured left-over bell shaped piece of
waste land, just across from what is now the useless Texas World
Speedway, the front mouth of the bell was what you drove into. The
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 7 15 Jan 2001

long skinny handle was the range, a full 500 yard affair. No spotting
scope allowed. You may use the 300 H&H with the Bausch and Lomb
optics for the loads you put up last week Mike, but you and Toby have
to walk to bring back the 3 inch group. I learned quickly why dogs
are prized up North!

Years later, Toby appeared with a virus thought only to be in the
guard dogs from Viet-Nam! He became case-of-the-month at Vet school,
the first known appearance of it in the USA, somehow. He eventually
weakened and died. But he finally, in some curious half-hearted way,
did learn to partly bark from the rest of the dogs in the Vet School
during his confinement there!

You know, it sometimes takes us a major shift in our perspective about
things, to realize what is going on all around us we never noticed
before! During this curious, "I'm finally learning to bark!",
syndrome, I suddenly realized Toby had a *HUGE* collection of sounds
in a vocabulary I had never noticed before! Years later I've learned
from what I have read, but once was right in the middle of and never
noticed, that wolves have one one the largest animal vocabularies we
know about, for those who've found it out - and listened! He'd been
trying to tell me lots more all along, to which I was never listening.

Fido is like that and yes, the word play is intended here.

So, Toby was buried not far from the right side of the bench rest.
There is a reason for the phrase "Right Hand Man", for those of you
who know the medieval European origin of the phrase. A whole group of
descendant offspring and cross-breed dogs within our family, focused
mainly on the follow-on Siberian Huskies we acquired, are there with
him. You are allowed to bury privately in Texas.

Only once, at the peak of the sunspot cycle, did he ever get to see
the Northern lights from Texas.

Dr. Zeller, the bachelor sanitation engineer for Texas A&M who
actually owned the range, died long ago. The parcel remained, for a
while as a range, but lay fallow for a long time until .. lights began
to appear on it at Christmas time! It is now "Santa's Wonderland!"
Today, thousands of visitors take the annual tour which featured, this
year, over 1.750,000 lights of a fantasy-land that fascinates
children, older children, and especially the oldest children of all,
the ones from the nursing homes for miles around.

Most folks know nothing about Toby in relationship to the place. But
I often wonder if he thinks the lights above him are just for him, a
reminder of the cold Northern Lights that covered him when he was just
a puppy?

Perhaps they keep him warm.

Mike @ 1:117/3001

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 8 15 Jan 2001

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FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 9 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
RECIPES
=================================================================

By: Carol Shenkenberger

Here's 2 recipes that represent Canada well in any country!

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: French Canadian Pea Soup
Categories: Canadian, Soups, Vegetables
Yield: 1 Servings

1 lb Dried peas
8 c -Water
1/2 lb Salt pork-all in one piece
1 Onion, large;chopped
1/2 c Celery;chopped
1/4 c Carrots;grated
1/4 c Parsley; fresh,chopped
1 Bay leaf;small
1 ts Savory, dried
-Salt and Pepper

"Newfoundland Pea Soup is very similar, but usually includes more
vegetables such as diced turnips and carrots, and is often topped with
small dumplings. This soup is very good reheated.. The most authentic
version of Quebec's soupe aux pois use whole yellow peas, with salt
pork and herbs for flavour. After cooking, the pork is usually chopped
and returned to the soup, or sometimes removed to slice thinly and
served separately. Instead of fresh or dried herbs, herbs salees
(herbs preserved with salt) are often used; they are available
commercially or made at home. Pea soup remains a popular dish in
restaurants where tourists enjoy a true taste of old Quebec. In some
variations, a little garlic, leeks, other vegetables or a ham bone are
added for flavour. For a thicker consistency (though this is not
traditional) a cup or two of cooked peas can be pureed then returned
to the soup."

Wash and sort peas; soak in cold water overnight. Drain and place in a
large pot; add water, parsley, salt pork, onion, celery, carrots,
parsley, bay leaf, savory and 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat
and simmer until peas are very tender, about 2 hours, adding more
water if needed. Remove salt pork; chop and return to soup. Discard
bay leaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper. MAKES 8 SERVING:
SOURCE: "The First Decade" chapter in _A Century of Canadian Home
Cooking_

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Roast Venison
Categories: Meats, Misc, Canadian
Yield: 6 Servings

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 10 15 Jan 2001

4 lb Venison roast;
-elk,moose,or deer)
2 tb Flour
2 Cloves garlic (minced)
2 tb Brown sugar
1 ts Prepared mustard
1 tb Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c Vinegar or lemon juice
1 lg Onion (sliced)
1 cn Tomatoes (14 oz can)
MARINADE
1/2 c Vinegar
2 Cloves garlic (minced)
2 tb Salt
Cold water to cover meat

Marinade the venison over night in the refrigerator. Season with salt,
roll in flour and brown in hot skillet. Place in crock-pot cooker and
add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low 10 to 12 hours.
MARINADE: Mix ingredients together in a bowl just large enough to
cover venison with water. No need to stir this marinade. Use for "red"
meats (including rabbits) or game birds.

From: LINDSEY JONES Conf: (1114) F-INTERCOOK

* Origin: SHENK'S EXPRESS Norfolk VA 757-486-3057 28.8 Dual
(1:275/100)

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FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 11 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
GETTING TECHNICAL
=================================================================

By: David Hallford
To: Carol Shenkenberger
Re: My Questions for Candidates
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> *** Quoting Foxy Ferguson from a message to Mark
> Lewis ***

FF> currently used tossers would have to be re-worked by the authors.
FF> And some of those authors are long gone from Fidonet, as you
FF> know. And the odds of everybody switchin' to some new tosser just
FF> to take advantage of a new flag, well, you figger 'em....

> True, but what if it was in the comment ,U, area?
> Might be useful to know the exact feed the site
> uses if it was considered 'optional' but could be
> used if a net went 'blinkers' on the node? If
> added that way, would be useful for ION's as well
> as POTS sites?

> Tracking the feed of an ION if their net goes
> down and they feed outside of it, can be very
> awkward indeed.

> David, repost the RIVA here? I'd like to take a
> closer look. I'm thinking as an end node
> listing, could be very useful here in R13 if a
> HOST goes down.

> It doesn't have to be implemented by mailers to be
> useful as text.

xxcarol

The are from my working notes, Carol. Please ignore all misspellings.
The file is dated 12/1/99 which is the last time I played with the
software.

==========================
USE OF MRVIA and RVIA FLAGS
----------------------------
A. MRVIA flag

1. This flag should be used by the Network/Region Coordinator,Host,
or Network/Region Echomail Coordinator to indicate the primary path
for echomail routed netmail into the net/region.

2. In a flag field of the nodelist the MRVIA flag would be used
indicating the three dimensional node number of that node which will
route the netmail to the network/region listed in the node number
field for the nodelist on that line. There can be only one MRVIA flag
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 12 15 Jan 2001

for a network and only one for the region level. This flag is normally
on the NEC or REC's nodelist entry.

B. RVIA Flag

1. This flag should not be used by nodes whose routing path is
covered by either Host routing or an Echo-Routed netmail path list
maintained as each zone decides. It should, however, be used if no
true routing data is available for a node.

2. In a flag field of the nodelist the RVIA flag would be used
indicating the three dimensional node number of that node which will
route the netmail to the node listed in the node number field for the
nodelist on that line.

As an example: An IP only node is in a network where the NC and mail
hub cannot directly communicate with him/her. This means that both
Host routed and echo-routed netmail would not reach that node. In this
case the RVIA flag would indicate the best place to route the nodes
netmail.

PROGRAM
---------

1. PARSE DATA FROM NODELIST Already written. Use FLAGLIST for RVIA
and MRVIA. Outputs are RVIA.TXT and MRVIA.TXT. These are raw nodelist
entries with the node number in 3D format.

2. INPUT DATA INTO DATABASE
Already written. Import the TXT files into a database only 3 fields
needed NODE NUMBER, FEED, and TYPE (RVIA or MRVIA)

3. OUTPUTS a. RAW
(low level). This is an actual list of each node's feed. One line per
entry (already written) b. Intermediate level. Take the RAW data and
combine it into a list of feeds and the nodes they feed.

FEED NODE, NODE, NODE, ETC C. High level. Chase the feed paths and
combine them. As an example if 1:208/103 got a feed from 1:202/800
and 1:202/800 got a feed from 1:12/12 the output would be:
RAW 1:208/103 1:202/800 1:202/800 1:12/12 High Level 1:12/12 1:202/800
1:208/103

If the feed marker were MRVIA for 1:202/800 the output would be:
1:12/12 1:202/* 1:208/103 d. Difference list. A difference list should
be generated from the RAW data so folks would only have to look at
what changed.

NOTE: If the flag is MRVIA then the node become /*

* Origin: The Psychotic Submarine (1:211/103)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 13 15 Jan 2001

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

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 14 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
ECHOING
=================================================================

Fri 5 Jan 01 6:38a
By: Ward Dossche
To: Fidonews Robot
Re: Re: FidoNews 18:01 [00/10] Editorial
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Robot Sah,

Freedom of the press is a beautifull thing. Unfortunately that same
freedom is not devoid of abuse.
Example ... the "Chat with Editor"-contribution of:

F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 01 1 Jan 2001

By: Bart Verhaeghe
To: All
Re: Ward Dossche The abuse Story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear International Fidonet Sysop's. I am here to inform you of the
abuse of Ward Dossche. Just some time ago I was a downlink of Ward.
But the cable company was ready in Belgium so I took the cable and,
I asked Johan Zwiekhorst (RC29) if I could poll his system instead
by IP, That was fine for Johan and I informed Ward about my decision

Ward's reply to Fidonews Robot:
What Bart fails to mention is that it was yours truly who pointed him
to Johan Zwiekhorst whom, in my opinion, at that time was the onlyone
technically available to provide the technical service requested. Both
Johan and I also discussed Bart's imminent transition between feeds
(Johan undoubtedly can confirm this).

What Bart equally fails to mention is that I assisted Johan Zwiekhorst
to the best of my abilities in order to get him a reliable link in
zone-1 in order to service Bart's request. (both Johan and John
Souvestre will also confirm this when prompted).

BV> Like changing my password so I could not areafix to his system to
BV> disconnect my echomail.

WD> It is indeed a know fact you need to send your areafix-requests
WD> here to "areafix" and not "areamanager". And I don't think even
WD> Bart will dissagree if
WD> I state I performed a manual-disconnect for hundreds of
WD> conferences. Most likely he will concur that at my suggestion he
WD> was added to Johan Zwiekhorst's hub-entry because technically it
WD> made more sense than remaining listed under my hub.

BV> He says that there is a historical rule that say's
BV> that the ic/zc2 has to take mail from the r28-bone.

WD> Way in time the R29-sysops agreed on a single import-system,
WD> largely to settle a rather ferocious mail-war. This has never been
WD> IC/ZC2-related.
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 15 15 Jan 2001

BV> His whole mailer system is "historic"...no %rescan; ...

What do you expect if conferences are "passthru"?

> ... no Msgid ...

WD> There is no rule about that.

BV> and he still strips seenbye's ...

WD> Which is a requirement when you are gating echomail to other
WD> zones (in this case John Souvestre).

BV> Third Chapter of this story He made another people think I am a
BV> bad person by saying in a R29 area (west-vlaams.reg) with another
BV> college (Alfred Vossen) that he is not welcome ....

WD> This calls for some serious quoting ...

************************* QUOTE *************************
Date: 08 Oct 00 19:23:19
From: Ward Dossche
To: Bart Verhaeghe
Subj: Re: dikkoppen
______________________________________________________________________
Bart,

>WD> Het verhaal van BACKBONE.B vertelt voldoende en de houding t.o.v.
>WD> Alfred Vossen, die het alleen maar wat plezanter probeerde te
>WD> maken,
>WD> vond ik nu niet echt van het beste dat ik al ooit mocht lezen.

>BV> never mind sluit hem af dan zijn we van hem af he .

>WD> Ik denk er niet aan.

>WD> Alfred is een van de meest positief ingestelde gasten in gans
>WD> R29, je zou blij moeten zijn dat hij voor wat flow en wat
>WD> kwaliteit wil helpen zorgen.

>WD> Ik heb gezegd!

>WD> \x/ard
************************ UNQUOTE ************************

Translated this goes about as follows:

************************* START TRANSLATE *************************
>WD> The story in BACKBONE.B says it all and the attitude towards
>WD> Alfred Vossen, who only tried to cheer-up matters a little bit,
>WD> wasn't perceived by me as the best I've been able to read so far.

> BV> That doesn't matter, you just drop his link and then we're rid
> BV> of him.

> WD> I don't even think of it.
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 16 15 Jan 2001

> WD> Alfred is one of the most positive oriented guys in the whole
> WD> of R29,
> WD> you should be pleased he wants to enhance the flow and quality.

> WD> I have spoken!
************************ END TRANSLATE ************************

BV>So my dear fidonet sysop's I hope I've shed some more light on Ward
BV> Dossche's abusive power as ic/zc2.

BV> Groeten, Bart Verhaeghe Fidonet : 2:292/907 Web-Site :

WD> In fact the only thing which has happened is a gross
WD> misrepresentation of documented facts to which hardly any defense
WD> is possible.

WD> Those that don't care, they simply don't care while those that do
WD> will take this and other communications irrelevant of truth and/
WD> or content and make certain it becomes an urban legend.

WD> \x/@rd

WD>--- DB 1.58/001877
WD> * Origin: Many Glacier via ADSL - BinkD on 'glacier.mine.nu'
WD> (2:292/854)

~~~~~~~~~~~End~~~~~~~~~~~

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FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 17 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
WE GET EMAIL
=================================================================

The 26-year-old mother stared down at her son who was dying of
terminal leukemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness, she
also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent she
wanted her son to grow up and fulfill all his dreams. Now that was no
longer possible. The leukemia would see to that. But she still wanted
her son's dreams to come true. She took her son's hand and asked,
"Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew
up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?"

"Mommy, I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up." Mom smiled
back and said, "Let's see if we can make your wish come true." Later
that day she went to her local fire department in Phoenix, Arizona,
where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix. She
explained her son's final wish and asked if it might be possible to
give her six year old son a ride around the block on a fire engine.
Fireman Bob said, "Look, we can do better than that. If you'll have
your son ready at seven o'clock Wednesday morning, we'll make him an
honorary fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire
station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine
yards! "And if you'll give us his sizes, we'll get a real fire uniform
for him, with a real fire hat -- not a toy one -- with the emblem of
the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and
rubber boots. They're all manufactured right here in Phoenix, so we
can get them fast."

Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his fire
uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and
ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help
steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven. There were
three fire calls in Phoenix that day and Billy got to go out on all
three calls. He rode in the different fire engines, the paramedic's
van, and even the fire chief's car.

He was also videotaped for the local news program. Having his dream
come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him,
so deeply touched Billy that he lived three months longer than any
doctor thought possible.

One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the
head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept that no one should die
alone, began to call the family members to the hospital. Then she
remembered the day Billy had spent as a fireman, so she called the
Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in
uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition.
The chief replied, "We can do better than that. We'll be there in
five minutes. Will you please do me a favor? When you hear the
sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over
the PA system that there is not a fire? It's just the fire department
coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you
open the window to his room?

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 18 15 Jan 2001

About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the
hospital, extended its ladder up to Billy's third floor open window
and 16 firefighters climbed up the ladder into Billy's room. With his
mother's permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how
much they loved him. With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the
fire chief and said, "Chief, am I really a fireman now? " Billy, you
are," the chief said. With those words, Billy smiled and closed his
eyes one last time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 19 15 Jan 2001

=================================================================
HUMOR
=================================================================

MANHOOD
A man had a terrible accident. His manhood was mangled and torn from
his body.

The doctor reassured him that modern medicine made it possible for his
manhood to be rebuilt, but insurance didn't cover the expense. It was
considered "cosmetic".

The doctor then gave the man three choices - small for $3,500; medium
for $6,500 and large for $14,000.

The man was sure he'd want medium or large.

The doctor suggested that he discuss it with his wife privately before
a final decision was made.

The doctor left the room and while he was gone the man called his wife
and told her their options.

The doctor returned and found the man looking very sad.

"Did you make a decision?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," said the man. "She'd rather remodel the kitchen"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While I was taking a Law course, the 'Audi alteram parten'
rule was explained to us.

Translated it means "To hear the other party"

After discussing the subject at great length, the lecturer
asked if anyone didn't understand the rule.

Responded one man "My Wife"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 20 15 Jan 2001

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

------------------------------------------------------
*Fidonet-related sites

. -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- .
| FIDONET-RELATED SITES |
` -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- '
Last update: December 30, 2000

FidoNet
Homepage: http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews: http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
Echolist: http://www.baltimoremd.com/echolist/
Echomail links: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidonet/fidoip.html
SDS Files: http://fidobbs.dk/download (Web Access to SDS)
FTSC page: http://www.ftsc.org/
General: http://www.writebynight.com/fidonet.html

Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org
Region 10: http://www.r10.org
Net 102 http://home.earthlink.net/~kayshapero/net102.htm
Net 103: http://www.webworldinc.com/club103/
Net 203: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8687/net203index.html
Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/
Net 2410: http://www.vector.11.com/net2410/
Region 12: http://sparkys.dyndns.org
Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm
Net 264: http://www.net264.org/
Net 275: http://www.homershut.net/~mahoover/net275/
Region 14: http://www.ouijabrd.com/region14
Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/
Region 15: <vacant>
Region 16: <vacant>
Region 17: http://www.region17.net
Net 140: http://www.nwstar.com/~net140
Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/

Region 19: http://bise.tzo.com/r19
Net 124: http://www.dallasinet.com/net124
http://texoma.net/~flv
Net 130: http://www.startext.net/homes/net130
Net 393: http://www.chatter.com/~wb/

Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org
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)
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 21 15 Jan 2001

Region 25: http://www.literary.freeserve.co.uk/net2502/
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)
http://Welcome.to/skynetbbs/
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://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4552/
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
! 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)
Net 5028: HTTP://5028.nordnet.ru/
Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English)
Net 5049: http://www.n5049.z2.fidonet.org (English/Russian)
Net 5074: http://www.z2.n5074.fidonet.net
?? Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian)

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

Zone 4:
Region 80: http://fidobrasil.8m.com (Portuguese)
Region 90:
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)

Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/

Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org
Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html
(Chinese)

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
immediate response, and an attempt to deliver immediately
after processing, or a "MinuteMail System", as it were.
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 22 15 Jan 2001

v-email flag [email protected]
| email address or
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
13/25 @ Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo.
18/500 @ Ross Cassell | FTP, BinkP |128K+,!| n/c
19/68 | Ben Ritchey | UUE:BFDS | 33.6k | n/c
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
220/10 | [email protected] |BinkP,FTP,UUE|1.5M+ | n/c
218/109 @ Matt Munson | BinkP,UUE | 33.6k | n/c
246/160 @ Mason Vye | FTP, UUE | 56K | n/c
249/116 | Carl Austin Bennett | FTP, UUE |ADSL,60 | 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 | CABLE | n/c
379/1 @ Dale Ross | FTP, BinkP,UUE | 256K+,! 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
3407/4 @ [email protected] | UUE,FTP | 28.8 | n/c
3632/84 | Robert Todd |FTP,VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 57.6k | 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
280/1601 @ Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c
292/620 | Eddy Missoul | VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 64k |N/C
292/624 | Steven Leeman | UUE | 64k | N/C
292/907 | Bart Verhaeghe | BinkP,VMoT,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
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 23 15 Jan 2001

344/201 | Julio Garcia | BinkP | ??? | n/c
346/3 @ Carlos Navarro | UUE | ??? | n/c
382/100 | Sinisa Burina | BinkP,ifcico | ??? | n/c
406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | BinkP | ??? | n/c
406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | BinkP | ??? | n/c
423/81 | Milos Bajer | BinkP | ??? | 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
550/4077 | Serguei Trouchelle| UUE | ----- | 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
801/161 @ Renato Zambon | UUE | 33.6 |n/c
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

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 24 15 Jan 2001

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

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 25 15 Jan 2001

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

FidoNews Article Submission (January 2001)

FidoNews, founded in early 1984, is the newsletter of the FidoNet
computer network, for both its Sysops and users. It is passed to its
readers electronically via the FidoNet and other computer networks and
to non-network readers as well as to the InterNet. Fidonews welcomes
articles, editorials, and features of interest to the Fidonet
Community.

To have your article included in Fidonews, simply send it via netmail
to 1:1/23 or 1:103/301, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

In the past, this article submission document outlined the many
technical details involved in processing Fidonews articles. The
assumption in the past seems to have been that articles would be
automatically processed from the editor's inbound mail directly into
Fidonews. However, the current editor does no automatic inbound
processing; rather, each article is examined before publication and
technical details are handled by the editor rather than imposed on the
person submitting the article. It works better that way - it means
that you are free to just concentrate on what you want to say.

It's perfectly acceptable to simply write your article the same way
you would write netmail or email. Don't worry about the stuff added
by software along the way... I edit that out anyway. All I need at
this end is a text message which I can read with standard software and
which I can import into a standard text editor to format for the
Fidonews software. Alternatively, you can file attach an ASCII text
copy of your article.

Here are some guidelines you can use to help me make it easier to
format your article for Fidonews:

1. Use standard ASCII text. Most word processor formats can't be
used by the Fidonews software. In addition, the Fidonews software
won't accept most ASCII control characters nor any characters above
ASCII 127 (this, unfortunately, includes all those neat box drawing
characters).

2. Start your lines at the left of your screen when typing. The
software puts in a left margin automatically, and I have to manually
remove any left margin appearing in your document.

3. Keep your line length to under 70 columns for tables or charts (or
if you include an ASCII illustration). Regular paragraphs exceeding
this 70 column limit can be reformatted during the editing process,
but tables and charts are normally distorted beyond recognition by a
simple reformatting.

4. Separate paragraphs with a blank line. This is how my text editor
recognizes paragraph endings, so I have to add blank lines manually if
FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 26 15 Jan 2001

you don't.

5. Title your article as you'd like to see it in the Table of
Contents. If you don't, I'll make up a title for you, but I'd rather
have the article appear as you wish.

6. Include your name and node number (or internet address) under the
title. I'll grab it from your message, if necessary... but, again,
I'd rather have the article appear as you wish.

7. Check your own spelling and wording. Though I feel free to
reformat your article so it conforms to technical requirements, I
generally leave the wording (and spelling) alone as I don't want to
distort what you have to say.

8. Send your article before Saturday midnight in order to see it in
that Monday's edition. Normally I put the newsletter together Sunday
and send it out... and I normally check email and netmail before I
finalize the edition. So if I get your article to me before Saturday
midnight, I'll include it... but send it by Saturday to be safe :)

9. If you're not sure whether you should write or send in your
article, I would encourage you to send it anyway. Chances are, if you
write of something of interest to yourself, it'll be of interest to
others. Besides, Fidonews is a better publication when it's written
by a variety of people :)

Warren D. Bonner
Fidonews Editor

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Editor: Warren D. Bonner, 1:1/23, [email protected] |
| Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, [email protected] |
| Columnist: Joe Jared, 1:103/0, [email protected] |
| (Fido Via Internet Hubs column) |
| Columnist: Ol' WDB, 1:103/401, [email protected] |
| Humor: Chuckles & Grins, emailed to editor |
| Sites Bio: Frank Vest, 1:124/6308.1 |
| (The best site of the week) |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince |
| Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, |
| Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink, |
| Doug Meyers |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

"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.

FIDONEWS 18-03 Page 27 15 Jan 2001

Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet.
Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2000 by Warren Bonner, though authors
retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinions expressed
by theauthors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication
and distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are
encouraged to send their articles in ASCII text to:
Warren Bonner at one of his addresses above.

The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file
area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS.
These sources are normally available through your Network
Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from
the following sources:

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Freq FIDONEWS @ 1:140/1, or 1:396/1 |
| ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ |
| ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ |
| http://www.fidonews.org |
| email subscription: [email protected] |
| (subject: help body: list) |
| ftp mail: [email protected] (subject: help) |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

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